[Ads-l] Little Lord Fauntleroy

[Martin Schneider]

The second, I believe.

On Sun, Aug 30, 2026 at 8:07 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Is it pronounced "Fauntle - Roy" or "Faunt - LeRoy"?
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Martin Schneider <000024dc089a88e9-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu
> <mailto:000024dc089a88e9-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu>>
> Date: Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 3:56 AM
> Subject: Little Lord Fauntleroy
> To: <ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu<mailto:ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu>>
>
>
> I participate in a well-known trivia competition in which a recent question
> incorporated a reference to "Little Lord Fauntleroy"... in context it was
> clear that the reference was mildly pejorative. The term derives from an
> 1886 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
>
> My interest here lies in the idea that the term is never today used in a
> non-pejorative sense.
>
> Presumably the original Burnett work was not putting down its little
> protagonist.... when did this come about? Instantaneously or did it require
> generations of moderns beaten down by World War I and Watergate and ...
> whatever into being unable to see Little Lord Fauntleroy as he "really" is
> and always treating him as a figure of ridicule.
>
> I remember a joke from a stand-up comedian .... "was 'whoop-de-do' EVER
> used in a non-ironic sense?" that is, as a genuinely heartfelt celebration?
> "Goodness lads, we won the darby! Whoop-de-do, I say, whoop-de-do!" It is
> hard for us to imagine.
>
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