Lady

A lady is a woman who is the counterpart of a lord; or, the counterpart of a gentleman.

More recent usage: social class

In more recent years, usage of the word lady is even more complicated. Remarks made by the journalist William Allen White in his 1946 autobiography indicate part of the difficulties. White relates that a woman who had paid a fine for streetwalking came to his newspaper to protest, not that the fact of her conviction was reported, but that the newspaper referred to her as a "woman" rather than a "lady." Since that incident, White assured his readers that his papers referred to human females as "women," with the exception of police court characters, who are all "ladies."

Related Topics:
Journalist - William Allen White - 1946 - Autobiography - Fine - Streetwalking - Police court

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White's anecdote touches on a phenomenon that others have remarked on as well. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, in a difference reminiscent of Nancy Mitford's U vs. non-U distinction, lower class women strongly preferred to be called "ladies" while women from higher backgrounds were content to be identified as "women." Alfred Ayers remarked in 1881 that upper middle class female store clerks in his day were content to be "saleswomen," while lower class female store clerks, for whom their job represented a social advancement, indignantly insisted on being called "salesladies." Something of this sense may also be underneath Kipling's lines:

Related Topics:
Nineteenth - Twentieth century - Nancy Mitford - U vs. non-U - Lower class - Alfred Ayers - 1881 - Kipling

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:The Colonel's lady and Rosie O'Grady —

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:Sisters under the skin. . .

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These social class issues, while no longer on the front burner in the twenty-first century, have imbued the formal use of "lady" with something of an odour of irony.

Related Topics:
Twenty-first century - Irony

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It remains in use colloquially; for example, as a counterpart to "gentleman," in the phrase "ladies and gentlemen," and is generally interchangeable (in a strictly informal sense) with "woman." (e.g., "The lady at the store said I could return this item in thirty days.")

Related Topics:
Colloquially - Gentleman

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