lady

   Used to address a woman whose name is unknown in both Britain and the USA, though such usage is not considered to be correct. The term is marginally less polite than the American ‘ma’am’, and considerably more polite than ‘Missis’ and such-like terms. In War Brides, by Lois Battle, a young American soldier, talking to a young married woman who is a fellow passenger on a train, says: ‘This is the heart of America, lady.’ In The Magic Army, by Leslie Thomas, an American army officer says to an English doctor’s wife, whom he knows reasonably well: ‘You look like the spirit of spring today, lady.’ ‘Lady’ would be used by e.g. London children addressing a strange woman if she was reasonably well dressed, and if they needed to create a good impression. They are not implying that the woman concerned is a lady of considerable social rank, entitled to be addressed as ‘my lady’, but they know that lady is a polite synonym for woman. Its use as such is reflected in expressions like ‘char-lady’ rather than ‘charwoman’, used of the daily help.

   ‘Lady’ is frequently qualified by other words to form vocative expressions of differing value. ‘My pretty lady’ is the kind of flattering expression used by, e.g., a gypsy fortune teller to a prospective client. Examples of its use, by such a speaker, are in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss and The Dream of Fair Women, by Henry Williamson. The gypsies in these two books also use ‘my good lady’ and ‘my little lady’, the latter to a young girl. ‘Little lady’ is used by an older man to an adult woman in a friendly way in Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, though there is a comment about the forced heartiness of the speaker. Young lady’ is never used by a young man to his young lady, the girl he is courting, but is commonly used by parents when admonishing a daughter: ‘Just what do you think you are doing, young lady?’ It is also used by older men to address in a flattering way a woman who is younger than themselves. In The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence, a doctor uses it to address a patient who is a very old lady indeed: ‘Doctor Corby turns to me, smiles falsely, as though he practised it diligently every morning before a mirror. “Well, how are you, young lady?”’ ‘Dear lady’ (with ‘dear boy’ as the masculine equivalent) appear to be favoured forms of address by older actors in Britain. This also occurs in The Dream of Fair Women, by Henry Williamson, where the woman to whom it is addressed says: ‘What a conceited bore that man is! How I hate being called “dear lady”.’ It is probably not the term itself which is offensive, more the over-theatrical way in which this expression tends to be uttered. Nevertheless, it is meant to be friendly when said in Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant, by Anthony Powell, and The Fox in the Attic, by Richard Hughes, where the speakers are both very middle-class. There are further examples of its use in The Half Hunter, by John Sherwood, again by a middle-class speaker. Such would almost certainly be the case with the user of any vocative expression beginning with ‘dear’. ‘Old lady’ also occurs vocatively, with ‘old’ having its usual friendly intention. In A Cack-Handed War, by Edward Blishen, it is used by a brash working-class man to a woman serving tea in a café. In Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, it is used in private, as a genuine term of endearment, by an American husband to his wife. ‘Lady’ occurs as a vocative in Shakespeare, either alone or as part of a longer expression, but it is not especially frequent. Typical uses include: most dear lady, mine honoured lady, noble lady, poor lady, etc. The word may also be used to qualify another head-word, as in ‘dear lady daughter’.