ANST - Titles

[Margo Lynn Hablutzel]

Your Muckey-Muckness:

>>> As an example, Sara is often referred to as my "Lady Wife".
>>> Although we are not married we have been together for nearly
>>> eight years. We ignore the simple mistake and continue the
>>> conversation rather than bring slight embarassment on the speaker. 

In a common-law marriage state, she WOULD be considered your wife.  (I
don't know if Texas is one, I'm single so it's irrelevant to me.)  Also,
many of the definitions of the word in period had less to do with marriage
and meant "a woman," "a woman engaged in the sale of a commodity" (as in
"fishwife"), "the mate of a male animal," and appropriately "the mistress
of a household."

"Husband" also means "a peasant owning his own house and land" (and in your
case, pigs), "freeholder," "the master of a house," "the male head of a
household," "one who tills and cultivates the soil, a cultivator, farmer,
husbandman," as well as "a man joined to a woman by marriage."

So someone who refers to Sara as your "Lady Wife" and you as her "Lord
Husband" are not off the mark.

I agree about the use of "Grace," "Majesty," and so forth, but that gets us
into the argument about the improper use of most SCA titles when compared
to period, and I have other things to do this weekend.......<s>


                                ---= Morgan, Hobby Etymologist
                                     (rooting for the Broncos)


           |\     THIS is the cutting edge of technology! 
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           |/     Morgan Cain * Hablutzel at compuserve.com
                     Barony of the Steppes * Ansteorra
                        (and sometimes in Atlantia)
                    daytime: margolh at nortelnetworks.com

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