Talk:ladies and gentlemen
Latest comment: 5 years ago by -sche
Why we usually use it as "ladies and gentlemen" but not "gentlemen & ladies"? — This comment was unsigned.
- It is/was a politeness custom: ladies first, women and children first. See also: age before beauty. DCDuring TALK 14:32, 22 April 2012 (UTC)
- I've read speakers have a tendency to put short words before long words. There is also a tendency to put men before women, but usually only where men have as many syllables, or fewer ("men and women", "his and hers", "brothers or sisters"), and not even in all those cases ("mom and dad", "mom and pop", "aunts and uncles"). In the only example Cambridge gives of a 'higher-rank' rule causing long to precede short, "bacon and eggs", it looks like "eggs and becon" is still about half as common. - -sche (discuss) 06:49, 20 April 2019 (UTC)