Milady (from my lady) is an english term of address to a noble woman It is the female form of milord And here's some background on milord The plural possessive is ladies'. lady is singular, so if you were referring solely to one woman's shoes, it would be the lady's shoes. as for your second question, i'm assuming you're referring to a group of women in your salutation of them, so it would be good morning, ladies. and as you're addressing them directly, the comma preceding ladies is necessary. Even when lady macbeth says And take my milk for gall, that would definitely support the literal humorism theory, but i still don't understand how we get from milk to blood (too much of the blood humor supposedly being the problem).
The equivalent of dear sirs, for women? There are sometimes difficulties with using 'ladies' or 'lady' alone, but that is another longer question entirely to address all those contexts But for this question, the answer is easy You don't want to use the word 'gentlewoman' in almost all circumstances. Having heard the phrase, faint heart never won fair lady for the third time in very short span, i'm determined to find out its origin Otherwise, as elliot frisch has suggested, lady is the term you want
Lady can have negative implications in this setting because it is often used in a negative fashion, e.g That lady wouldn't stop talking about. I have been wondering about this little problem for a while now Everyone understands that, in the binary, the opposite of 'man' is 'woman', and the opposite of 'gentleman' is, namely, 'gentlewoman'. When speaking to my female friends (who know me well enough to not take offense), i frequently use the term toots to refer to them These are friends who know that i'm using it ironically as part.
I don't think it's obscene so much as profane By one theory, bloody in this context is a contraction for by our lady, essentially swearing by the virgin mary (bloody in wikipedia) Other similar oaths include blimey (god blind me) and gadzooks (by god's hooks (hands)) As to why bloody is considered obscene/profane in the uk more than in the us, i think that's a reflection of a.
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