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I was working drive through at McDonald's in the early 2000's and this old guy pulls up to my window. I say (as an Australian in an Australian drive through) "G'day mate, what can I get you?"
Well this guy loses his shit, flies into a rant about how I'm not his mate and he doesn't even know me and how dare I presume to be his mate. I say "I'm sorry, it's just a turn of phrase, what can I get you?"
He continues to rant and demands to see my manager. So I say sure, close the window and mosey on over to my manager and explain my situation. He looks a little bewildered but says "no stress I'll deal with it, just wait round the corner."
He walks into my booth andi hear him say "G'day MATE, what can I get for you?" The guy loses his brains for a few more minutes at the audacity. To which my manager says "I understand, what can I get you?" The guy finally orders and we all moved on with our lives.
Here in Devon, the local phrase from a certain age of woman server is "Hello, my lover". Catches the odd person out but you'd have to be a dick to kick off about it.
In old fashioned diners in the US the older woman would call you "Honey" frequently. This seems to bother the woke crowd. Me, I like the old school waitresses.
I'm part of the woke crowd and have never seen anyone I know get upset about it. In fact, we all tend to like it.
Why "my lover" ?
How did this come to be the phrase?
I don't know for sure, but my guess is that it extended from "Ullo my Love"
There's also "my 'ansome" from woman to man, and "mah bud / buddy" for man-man.
Like most regional English accents, there's tons of variations in a small geographic area and many unique words and phrases.
Scotland too: "hen" to women, "pal" to everyone.
Not that it would justify it at all, but was he Australian? I like to imagine this bewildered a-hole getting increasingly pissed at what he perceives as a transgression of social boundaries by every Australian he meets on his holiday.
How dare they ask me how I'm doing! None of their damn business!
Like going to England and responding tothe greeting "orright" with anything other than "orright". NO IM NOT "ORRIGHT" EVERYONE KEEPS ASKING ME IF IM "ORRIGHT".
Also they get real confused if you respond with "I'm great thanks mate how are you?"
They're saying it wrong. The question is: "yerright?" which could be interpreted as "are you alright?" but has enough wiggle room for "you are right" and "I acknowledge your rights".
Easy.
It was a long time ago but I don't remember him having an accent.
in the early 2000s*
Im pret'ty ha'ppy with how 'im using apostrophes THANK'YOU v'ery much'
Apostrophes are for possession & contractions; plurality isn’t on the list. Soz, m8.
I'''s'e'e'!'''I'f'''o'n'l'y'I d'''k'n'o'w'n'!'''T'h'a'n'k'y'o'u'''m'a's'k'e'd''s't'r'a'n'g'e'r'!
Ur🐋💦
Name checks out.
What a bizarre thing to be upset about. It sounds like the guy had a screw loose.
Yeah, maybe he was just having a rough day