Bit of a hijack, maybe. But are there times when “Mister” is used in a sense of “false respect”? I have a vague memory of running into that once but I don’t recall the specifics.
I don’t think either of those words means what you think it means.
Thanks for that friendly and useful addition to the discussion.
In the Navy, I believe, the term “Mr.” is sometimes used for any officer below a certain rank (can’t remember what it was, but maybe below the rank of Captain).
It may have been used sarcastically. I do know in the past Junior Officers were called Mr. This or that. And as I noted, in the late 80s I heard that. But I haven’t heard an Officer call “Mr. Whatever” in twenty years or so.
[nitpick]
Chronos just forgot to put nitpicks around
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Until this thread I never thought of the etymological link, but related is a dog you see every now and then, a Schipperke. (Wiki:Schipperke - Wikipedia)
Besides being a bitch to spell, they seem to me to be the most heat-efficient dogs in the world, take a Newfie and turn it into breadbox-size.
They hung out on the canal boats, originally.
ETA: well hush my mouth and read my own cite:
The breed name of “Schipperke”, in English-speaking nations, was thought to mean “little boatman”. However while they were occasionally seen on barges it was not their original or primary function, and in the areas of Leuven and Brussels “schipper” was the word for shepherd, making the name translate as “little shepherd”.[1]
So if they don’t use Mr. anymore everyone is addressed by their rank now? Ensign, Lieutenant etc.? And I imagine that Lt. junior grade so&so is simply shortened to Lieutenant?
But they used 'Mr." in the future on Star Trek, so it must still be true*!!*
There are probably still baseball players who refer to their manager as “Skip” (short for Skipper).
I doubt any ballplayers called Cornelius McGillicuddy “Skip”.
Nor really false respect. But just a way of distancing yourself from them. It is like saying I may have to work with you and for you but beyond work I never want to be around you.
When I worked for Macy’s I could not stand the Facilities director. He had no understanding of people and the proper way the job should be done. Spent many hours standing around waiting for an OK to complete a simple job.
As an example I returned to Macy’s because as an elevator escalator mechanic it paid $2.00 over scale. When the outsourced the work and saved a job as an engineer for us. It meant a loss of $2.00 an hour, loss of approx. $10,000 in overtime a year, and loss of company truck. He started the meting telling us of the cut with “I HAVE GOOD NEWS”. Not there is good news or bad news.
I only referred to him as Mr. Gusky. Never by his first name or his last only. No matter how many times he told me to call him by his first name it was always Mr. or sir.
Usually call them “Lieutenant” or “sir.” For LT(jg) you’d call them “Lieutenant” and refer to them as a “jg” (jay gee).
Keep in mind of the Star Trek of the late 80s and early 60s, the “Mr.” was correct. This Mr. stuff has fallen out of usage in the 80s and 90s. Much less of a class distinction (for lack of a better term) now than there once was.