Vocative
101brother — This term was formerly used far more frequently than today to a speaker’s real brother. a male relation born of the same parents. There are plenty of examples in the Shakespeare plays of such usage, the vocative expression sometimes being… …
102daughter — Anita Brookner, in Family and Friends, has: ‘“Daughter!” cries Sofka, in a loud voice which startles them both, as does the archaic use of the word.’ It is the vocative use of the word which is archaic, of course, though it is still to be… …
103doll — Used by mainly American speakers to a woman, who in modem times is very likely to object to the term. This may well be because she would recognize the definition of the slang term given in Chapman’s Dictionary of American Slang as an apt one:… …
104fellow — The original sense of this word was business partner, but by the fourteenth century it also had the meaning of companion in a more general sense. It became the usual way of addressing a male servant, and at first would have been thought to be… …
105foreign vocatives — Novels and plays written in English often introduce characters of other nationalities and give conversations in English that supposedly take place in other languages. A favourite way of indicating the latter is to throw in a few vocative… …
106gentleman — In modern use this is a polite form of ‘man’; in former times it referred or was used vocatively to a man of noble birth. In Shakespeare’s plays it occurs in the singular form, as when Juliet says to Romeo: ‘Trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove… …
107hero — One would expect a vocative such as ‘my hero’ to be used mockingly in modern times by a woman to a man, alluding to the romantic fiction of former times when weak females looked to strong men for protection. ‘Hero’ is certainly used mockingly… …
108lady — 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… …
109little — A frequent vocative element which can be either an endearment or an insult. It is an endearment, normally, when it is the first word of the vocative group, as in: little boy, little girl, little man, little lady, little one, little dear.… …
110Lord, my — In modem times this form of address would be heard most frequently in a supreme court in Britain, addressed to a judge. It also remains the formal way of addressing a nobleman below the rank of duke, and a Roman Catholic bishop. There is an… …
