I've always like the cat's pyjamas.
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010102
My brother and I truncated Dad to Da and Grandad to Granp or Granda.
The use of "kids" was frowned upon.
Roger
On 2/27/07, Christopher Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Candice:
>
> <snip>
> I also wanted to tell you of a curiosity involving
> "she." It seems to have been frowned upon by a lower
> middle class in New York, at least. That's where my
> New York-bred mother apparently picked it up, "it"
> being what was said correctively when any of us kids
> said "she": "Who's she? The cat's mother?" There was
> no parallel disapproval of "he," which always puzzled
> me--almost as much as "the cat's mother" did. What do
> you make of this? [Candice W]
>
> I thought this was UK usage. A quick Google indicates that there was a
> reference to it in *Notes & Queries* in 1879, which is early. Alas the page
> isn't reproduced, so I've no idea what was said.
>
> The objection as I understood it, was to referring to someone female
> (particularly one's mother) in her presence, thus evincing a lack of
> respect. Because 'she' is less animate than, say, 'Mater' (and, of course,
> one called one's mother little else) 'she' was turned, satirically, into
> someone less than human.
>
> The pater was called 'himself'. Though that, I think, is Irish.
>
> CW
> _______________________________________________
>
> 'What's the point of having a language that everybody knows?'
> (Gypsy inhabitant of Barbaraville)
>
--
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