Quote:
Originally Posted by dekeguy
May I suggest that two gentlemen unknown to each other are always Mr. Surname. If they are well known to each other they are John and Peter without the Mr. prefix.
A neice or nephew will address the older relative as Uncle John.
A gentleman never addresses anyone as Mr. John.
Mr. John is a form of address, dieing out (in the US but not so much in the UK) for the last twenty years or so, used only by family servants to younger males or in some cases by an old family servant to a grown man who was addressed in that manner by that servant when the man was a boy.
This was a charming custom which is now hopelessly obsolete and actually inappropriate unless the person using the "Mr. John" form of address is more comfortable with it than the "Mr. Smith" form.
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Look at the context of the question:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taualumna
Question for southern gals: Do men have a similar status? I have long heard about the Miss FIRST NAME designation for women, but I have not heard anything about men. Are men still Mr. LAST NAME no matter what?
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AOII Angel is answering the question specifically in the Southern context. In my (Southern) experience, Mr. First Name is a
very common way for children (up to about15 or 16) to address the adult male friends of their parents and perhaps certain other men. I rarely hear an adult use it.
It doesn't work quite the same way as Miss First Name though. Miss First Name has always been a common way for a person of any age to refer to or address an older woman. (Miss, in this context by the way, has nothing to do with marital status. My grandmother and her sister, one married and one widowed, were widely known as Miss Mary and Miss Suzie 'til the day they died.) I have to say, though, that it is dying out.
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