Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Stearmen]

I hear that so often down here that I guess I'm just used to it. Don't even give it much thought. As a matter of fact, if I were to, say, dine in a BBQ restaurant or maybe a meat and three, or some such place where the iced tea is sweet enough to pour over pancakes, and the waitress did NOT call me Hon or Sugar, I would take the omission as a black mark against the establishment.

On the opposite side of the coin, I once had a woman politely but firmly ask that I not call her Ma'am, as that was short for Madame, and that was another name for a woman who ran an establishment of questionable virtue, which she herself most certainly was not. I guess it takes all kinds.

I get called Hon a lot by waitresses. I sometimes want to say, a Hun is the same thing as Bosch, I am neither! I can remember being read out for calling an older woman Madam also, for just the reason you state!

 

[dh66]

I honestly don't care if the WAITER calls me 'honey' or 'sweetie', so long as my glass of iced tea never gets empty.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Up here you will be called "deeah," before you get called "sir" or "ma'am." As in "Deeah, up here we don't put no sugah in th' ice tea. If ya want it ya gut th' jah right theah on th' countah in fronta ya."

 

[dh66]

Up here you will be called "deeah," before you get called "sir" or "ma'am." As in "Deeah, up here we don't put no sugah in th' ice tea. If ya want it ya gut th' jah right theah on th' countah in fronta ya."

Don't I know it!
That's why when I'm up theah I just order a coke.

 

[tonyb]

It seems to me as though the terms "sir" and "ma'am" are fast Disappearing, at least around here. Almost daily I am addressed by a lady at a cash register as "honey" or "sweety". I find this very annoying. Just this morning while paying for gas, I was addressed by the lady cashier as "baby doll". I informed her that it was both unprofessional and infers a familiarity that does not exist, sir would be fine. She just shoved the change into my hand without saying a word and turned and looked out the window with her arms folded .... no doubt to look at the space ship she figured I was fueling.

Man, if this is happening with the frequency you report, a reasonable person would take that as a sign that that's the way people address each other in those parts. Or at least a goodly percentage of those people. When in Rome, you know.

Has it occurred to you that perhaps you were inferring a good deal more than that poor woman was implying?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

 

[Shangas]

Australia is famously casual and laid back...perhaps too much for its own good. Around here, it's 'buddy', 'bud', 'guy', 'mate'. Or first-names.

I even remember two girls who worked at the local charity shop refer to the manager as "the male". Which made a lot of people laugh.

 

[Stearmen]

In the biker world you hear Bro a lot! Such as, "haven't seen you in a while Bro!"

 

[Stearmen]

No Use Pining.

 

[Stearmen]

Old bat! I'm not talking baseball.

 

[GHT]

Old bat! I'm not talking baseball.

My late Mother-in-Law was affectionately called The Old Bat by another Son-in-Law. He was the husband of my wife's older sister. "The Old Bat's on the phone for you," he would shout to his wife, without covering the mouthpiece. Mother played along with this, even clipping his head for his insolence. When my wife's mother passed away, on the back of the hearse, with the family's permission, was the image of a bat, made from carnations, but sprayed black. Mother would have loved it. Her daughter carried out the obligatory, clipping of the head.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

....and 'Clipping his head' means...??
HD

 

[Stanley Doble]

A belt round the lug 'ole. She boxed his ear.

 

[Stanley Doble]

In other words a slap on the head.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We called that "cuffin' ya one." As in, "YOU KIDS SHUT UP IN THERE OR I'M GONNA CUFF YA ONE!"

 

[Stanley Doble]

She committed mayhem on his shell like protuberance.

 

[HudsonHawk]

A "dope slap".

 

[GHT]

....and 'Clipping his head' means...??
HD

THIS

[video=youtube;IRq-CJW2_IY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRq-CJW2_IY[/video]

 

[dh66]

Folks from the south of a certain age will probably remember the term 'cottonpicker' or 'cottonpicking'. I remember my dad and granddad, and others who would've still remembered the days of sharecroppers, using the term with about the same frequency, and disdain for whoever or whatever they were applying it to, as you now hear a more colorful expression involving one's mother.

 

[Stearmen]

Folks from the south of a certain age will probably remember the term 'cottonpicker' or 'cottonpicking'. I remember my dad and granddad, and others who would've still remembered the days of sharecroppers, using the term with about the same frequency, and disdain for whoever or whatever they were applying it to, as you now hear a more colorful expression involving one's mother.

Keep your cottonpicking hands off my beer!