Because in some prisons here in the US the inmates address the guards as boss.
Okay. Why should that be the assumed origin of the usage? Are people who were in prison and addressed guards as “boss” in the habit of addressing people outside prison that way?
Are there other factors being taken into consideration in reaching this conclusion?
Why shouldn’t it be the assumed origin of the usage? It’s not like I’m an etymologist so I’ll certainly concede that I might be way of base here. But Prison is the only place I’m aware of in the U.S. where it’s common for anyone to refer to a superior as boss. I’ve only been referred to as boss a handful of times and it’s always been in the context of communicating with fast food employees here in the south. So those few times it happens it just makes me think the individual served time.
That idea is foreign to me, where “gas station food” is usually the option of the desperate or poor, not including interstate travel plazas.
the only time I’ve seen it is old deep south prison movies, parody cartoons, and the jack benny show
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However, if you wish to start a fight in certain places call any black male over 18 “boy” …
Originally Posted by Dag Otto
For those who don’t know, in New Mexico you choose your gas station by the burritos they sell. Santa Fe Grill is fairly high on the list, made to order burritos in a gas station.
i take it you’ve never watched guy fieri’s diners drive-ins and dives show on the food channel… its started a trend of “excellent food in weird and unlikely spots”
But the chains helped by putting in outposts in gas stations like there’s one down the high way that had a subway an mc Donalds and a panda express … the panda moved and a taco chain moved in
The Pakistani community in my native UK also like to use “boss” (but not Indians I think).
I suggest the OP not overthink it. If the term was being used sarcastically, or for some other subtext, then someone’s face would have given the game away within the first handful of times.
It’s more likely just a colloquial term for “sir”.
In México, at least in small businesses, it is very common for an employee to call his employer “boss”. My employees will often use the Spanish word “patrón” when they address me. Que más, patrón? or ya terminamos, patrón. Same for my wife in her business, she is addressed as la patrona.
Mostly because other explanations have been offered.
But also because, even if you want to treat them equally, thinking that someone is an ex-con is not a great thing to think about them. Wouldn’t you want to have more evidence before making the assumption that the person you are talking to is some sort of (former) criminal?
Nobody’s ever called me “boss” that I can recall, but if someone did, I guess i’d just go with the flow and call him “boss” right back.
For some reason, jazz musicians love to give overblown Spanish titles to white guys. A friend of mine is usually El Jefe Del Mundo. He loves it.
Maybe consider that there’s something you don’t know, rather than assuming that people you know nothing about have served time based on nothing but their use of the term “boss.”
If I’m talking about my boss to friends or colleagues, “boss” is the usual term I use.
My take is that it is the current voiced period. “some statement” .=‘boss’ or ‘sir’ or ‘bud’ or ‘dude’ or ‘your excellency’ or ‘over’. The words don’t matter. Their purpose is to give voice to the end of the statement. It transfers the discussion to the next person.
Start calling young people “sir” then. Soon enough, it will stop feeling like a synonym for “geezer”.