Author Topic: 'miladies' common?  (Read 600 times)

mkenuk

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'miladies' common?
« on: May 05, 2020, 08:14:58 PM »
re the disclaimed 10-letter game.

Played by 27 from 334, just over 8%. I only saw it because I tried to play maladies and realised that the vowels were wrong.

Is it even a real English word? I'd always thought that both 'milady' and her partner 'milord' were words coined by the French to refer disparagingly to the English aristocracy who idled away their days on the beaches of the Riviera.

As for servants addressing their masters, in print I think they are usually written as two words ['Yes, My Lord' or 'No, My Lady'] or with an apostrophe ['Yes, M'lord'' and 'No M'lady]

Most famous of all. of course was the song 'Milord' by the immortal 'Little Sparrow' - Edith Piaf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRVvLLNN5wM


pat

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Re: 'miladies' common?
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2020, 08:29:50 PM »

Most famous of all. of course was the song 'Milord' by the immortal 'Little Sparrow' - Edith Piaf


Synchronicity! I took a break from arranging some music for my band to come on here and saw your post. The music I'm working on? An Edith Piaf medley including 'Milord'!

TRex

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Re: 'miladies' common?
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2020, 02:28:30 AM »
I remembered having missed milady quite some time ago, so decided to try miladies. Was a bit surprised it was common, but not shocked.

birdy

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Re: 'miladies' common?
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2020, 09:39:49 AM »
I see the word fairly often in the historical romances I read.

Jacki

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Re: 'miladies' common?
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2020, 09:57:52 AM »
Well milady is common, so it follows that miladies should be too. It's more common than sirrah in my mind.
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Alan W

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Re: 'miladies' common?
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2020, 02:42:19 PM »
Once again, MK, you are insinuating that a word allowed in Chihuahua is not a real English word at all. The cheek!

I suppose next you'll be saying that boudoir is not an English word. Well what about Milady's Boudoir, the magazine published for many years by Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia, in the P G Wodehouse stories? Nobody could be more English than Aunt Dahlia, with her proud history on the hunting field.

Milady is to be found in many dictionaries. The online Oxford labels it as "historical, humorous", and says it is "Used to address or refer to an English noblewoman or great lady." As birdy indicates, it's sometimes found in historical fiction. An example of miladies being used as a form of address is in Clively Close: Wait for the Dark (1993) by Ann Crowleigh:

Quote
"Excuse me, miladies," Hopkins entered with Chuzzlewit in his arms, "Burton has walked the dog, mum."

An example of the word used to refer to people:

Quote
The servants left with the milords and miladies and such, and then I couldn't hear naught but the fire crackling before me.

 - from Lady Thief: A Scarlet Novel (2014) by A.C. Gaughen.

An instance of milady being used humorously was in a 1999 Guardian headline, "Shotgun fury lands milady in prison", above an article about the resident of a Cornwall manor house who threatened two bailiffs who'd come about her husband's unpaid traffic fines.

Milord is already identified as rare, and I think milady and miladies should be the same in future.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

mkenuk

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Re: 'miladies' common?
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2020, 03:49:06 PM »
Touché!

How could one ever forget Aunt Dahlia!

Of course, no discussion of this topic would be complete without mentioning this classic sketch from the Two Ronnies.

Interestingly, searching for this on YouTube, I found that the key word was spelled three different ways - M'lord, Milord and Mi Lord!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UepI8W6pq4