The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-07-07
Verbal Etiquette.

There is distinction between certain
phrases, according to circumstances,
which, when misused, become vulgar
isms. We give few, taken from a
London journal:
The terms "ladies" and gentlemen"
become In themselves vulgarisms when
misapplied, and the improper application
of the wrong term at the wrong time
makes all the difference in the world to
ears polite; thus, calling man a ''gen-
man" when he should be called imam,
or the speaking of man as man when
he should be called gentleman; or the
alluding to lady as woman when she
should be alluded to as a lady; or the
speaking of woman as o lady when she
should be properly termed woman.
Tact and sense of the fitness of
things decide these points, there being
no fixed rule to go upon to determine
when a man is q man or when he Is q
gentleman, and though he is far oftener
termed the one than the other, he does
not thereby lose his attributes of gen.
tleman. In common parlance, a man is
always man to man, and never gen.
tleman; to a woman he is occasionally q
man and occasionally gentleman; but a
man would far oftener term a woman a
woman than he would term her lady.
When a man makes use of an adjective
in speaking of lady he almost invariably
calls woman, the term young lady gives
places as far as possible to the term girl,
although it greatly depends upon the
| amount of intimacy existing as to which
term is employed. Now, to turn to the
really tabooed words, 'stylish" and
''genteel" are relegated to the show
room, where they are very much used
| at home in each others company, al
though considered decidedly vulgar
when met with elsewhere. s'Stylish'
being bred in tho showroom is the right
word in the right place; but it Is hard
upon unfortunate 'sgenteel," that, con-
veying in itself SO much it should have
met with such fate. ''Nice" bids fair
to follow in the footsteps of discarded
words; standing alone as an adjective,
though passe, it still has its admirers,
but when to nice is added either as'aw-
fully" or "too," then nice is altogether
| out of favor.
| 'tJolly" is well enough on the lips of q
schoolboy, to whom it now of right be-
longs right which no one disputes;
but slang proper is and never can be
| anything else than vulgar, and those
who delight in its use for the embellish.
ment of their speech to all intents and
! purposes intend to be vulgar.
The word 'fellow," however much il
use it may be between men, sounds very
Objectionable from the lips of women;
and some women are given to the foolish
conceit of speaking of every man they
may happen to know as stdear fellow,
'tcharming fellow" a. Handsome fel
low," s'clever fellow"
'sBeau" and 'sbelle" are terms now nc
longer in use; and for beau no equivalent
has as yet been discovered, although the
"beauty" has replaced the 'belle.
Out of the nursery it is not customary
for children to style their parents othel
than by the good old-fashioned reveren
tial names of stfather and mother.
''Papa" and mamma are now nursery
names only, but spa" and tma" thost
unpleasant authorizations, are now happily
quite out of date.
The courteous s'thank you" has in
measure replaced the uncourteou'
"thanks," and it is no longer considered
very fine to make this curt curtailment