Talk:lady

The definition "The wife of a lord or a gentleman." seems flawed, in the sense of a title, it should be capitalised as Lady, and the second reason is that a Lady can be born a Lady and does not have to be defined in terms of her husband. I don't know how to edit it, does lady refer to a Lady as well? Pistachio 21:43, 16 April 2007 (UTC)Reply

Lady should cross-reference lady on the first line with {{see}}, and vice-versa. I think this should probably be in the tea room instead of RFV? The "the wife of..." definition is one possible definition, if not the primary sense, right? --Connel MacKenzie 06:23, 17 April 2007 (UTC)Reply

The wives of most British knights are also allowed the courtesy title Lady. --Enginear 20:21, 17 April 2007 (UTC)Reply

Disputed sense moved to Lady. — Beobach972 03:18, 21 June 2007 (UTC)Reply

Found Wycliffe, Genesis 16:8, as requested, via Wikisource Wycliffe Genesis 16

“he seide to hir, Fro whennus comest thou Agar, the seruauntesse of Sarai, and whidur goist thou? Which answerde, Y fle fro the face of Sarai my ladi.”

whereas what you were thinking was likely this,

“he said to her, From whence comest thou Hagar, the servantess of Sarai (Sarai’s slave-girl), and whither goest thou? Which answered, I flee from the face of Sarai, my lady.”

via BibleGateway Genesis 16:8 (Wycliffe Bible)

I don't know which to use, as one is archaic and the other isn't. --FeralOink (talk) 02:17, 6 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

From lady at Wiktionary:Requests for deletion:

 

The following information passed a request for deletion.

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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The senses

• (archaic, attributive, with a professional title) Who is a woman.

  A lady doctor.

• (in the plural) A polite form of address to women.

  Ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to ...

  Follow me, ladies!

seem redundant to the sense

• (polite or used by children) A woman: an adult female human.

  Please direct this lady to the soft furnishings department.

.​—msh210℠ (talk) 17:14, 19 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

I don't see how the first is redundant to that sense; it's not used by children, and it never was markedly polite, and currently ranges from the "things the old folks say and we let them get away with" rude to "sexist asshole" rude.--Prosfilaes (talk) 23:56, 19 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

Because all three senses just mean "woman". The contexts/registers can be added as a context template: (archaic, attributive, with a professional title; or polite or used by children) or the like. The meaning is the same.​—msh210℠ (talk) 15:29, 22 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

• KeepPurplebackpack89 ^{(Notes Taken) (Locker)} 19:58, 22 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

  Keep the archaic sense; delete the polite form of address. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 02:33, 1 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

• Keep both. This lady is polite but this lady doctor is not so anymore. And the form of address is in a different paradigm:

	Singular	Plural
Male	Follow me, sir!	Follow me, gentlemen!
Female	Follow me, madam!	Follow me, ladies!

— TAKASUGI Shinji (talk) 15:47, 12 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Kept. — TAKASUGI Shinji (talk) 17:04, 11 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

a/the ladies [uncountable] (British English) (North American English ladies’ room, women's room [countable])

I used the term and was met with replacement of "lady" by the other party with "person", as if I were an insufferable cretan. This might play into a usage note- here's an attack on the word as politically incorrect: Why Do You Call Us Ladies? "Many of us today have good reasons to think the category ‘ladies’ does not reflect our values, lives, or the times. The next time you greet a group of people you presume to be women, ask yourself a few questions: Are they slaveholding mistresses? Are they royalty? Are they wives of heads of state? Do you know their gender identity? If the answer to these questions is no, consider the fact that “hello ladies” might not communicate the warm and timeless welcome you are hoping to convey. Try dropping the gender reference entirely, simply saying, “Hello,” or “How can I help you?” remembering that ‘you’ is a perfectly adequate greeting to use in formal or casual occasions for any number of people, and without the baggage." --Geographyinitiative (talk) 00:40, 21 August 2023 (UTC)Reply

This clearly sounds like extreme wokism. If we reflected that we'd need bizarro notes on almost everything. I'm all for usage notes when it comes to these things, but it should be about society at large, not a small ideological minority. We don't generally make them about usage among dissident Mormons or orthodox Marxists-Leninists either. 88.64.225.53 13:47, 7 December 2023 (UTC)Reply