Lana in Evansville, Indiana, says all the women in her family affectionately call each other Gert or Gertie. She has discovered that one of her friends also uses the name Gertie as a term of endearment for the women in her own family. Although in this case it seems to function as a generic term, the female equivalent of the names Joe or Mac, for a couple of decades starting in the 1920s, the name Dirty Gertie was slang for “a promiscuous woman,” immortalized in the song “Dirty Gertie from Bizerte,” Bizerte being a town in Tunisia. This is part of a complete episode.
I’m wondering if the term of endearment, “girly” turned into “gertie” somewhere along the line?
My girlfriend in Australia had the same two given names as me. We generally simply called each other “Soos”, but signed notes as S1 (she was older than I) or S2. However after she lived in Georgia, USA for about 5 years in late 1980s, she changed to calling me “Gert”, and has called me that ever since. She could never tell me exactly why, but I didn’t object. It’s been a personal “thing” between us for decades
In English, you can express skepticism with the classic saying when pigs fly. In Tagalog, a similar sentiment is expressed with a phrase that translates “when the crow turns white, when the heron turns black,” and there’s a Hungarian phrase that...
Dax in Santa Cruz, California, wonders: Now that we’re into the 21st century, when will people stop saying that initial 20 when referring to a year such as 2028 the way we dropped the 19 in the term 1980s and just started referring to the ’80s? This...
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I’m wondering if the term of endearment, “girly” turned into “gertie” somewhere along the line?
My girlfriend in Australia had the same two given names as me. We generally simply called each other “Soos”, but signed notes as S1 (she was older than I) or S2. However after she lived in Georgia, USA for about 5 years in late 1980s, she changed to calling me “Gert”, and has called me that ever since. She could never tell me exactly why, but I didn’t object. It’s been a personal “thing” between us for decades