Being called ma'am by shop assistants?

[floralsilkbonnet]

Never before and then twice in the last few weeks. Is it my age (I'm nearly 40, but the shop assistants looked to be a similar age to me) or just something people say now? I don't know if 'Madame' would have been worse or better.

I don't think I like it and I'm not sure why. I wanted to say 'I'm not the queen' but that would have been rude so obviously I didn't.

I misread the title of this thread as 'baby being called ma'am' and came on to read about your regal tot 🤣

I got called Ma’am by an American on the tube the other day, he was asking me to pass over a copy of the Metro. I found it endearing that he didn’t realise how weird it sounded in a UK context!
The thing I find utterly weird is in US films where teenagers call their fathers ’Sir’ (digression).

@rainbowunicorn

Yes, a few things have historically gone from England to America, then been dropped in England, only to reappear more recently with our exposure to America over the last 70 years or so. I seem to remember the word 'trash' as an example of this, can't remember the others, but it's definitely a 'thing'. 'Candy' and 'diaper', I think, too.

I was called Signora on my recent Italy holiday & quite liked it. Definitely beats ‘Miss’.

I don't really understand why people should be addressed as anything. I understand it is polite but still annoying. But so are about 100 other things

I got called Ma'am by Frank Bruno when he asked me a question in a store, he was very humble and called me it several times, made my day.

There are some people who insist on it ( see Mr Menno for further enlightenment)

Some of the young lads round my way address me as Aunty. On the one hand, I was 😳 at being that old, but happy to happy that they were using the honorific instead of the "Fatty" I have been subjected at other times in my life.

I have been getting mix of miss and ma'am in the shops since my 30s. First when I got called ma'am I was annoyed but now I don't even pay attention what they call me.

'Signora' is Mrs!

I've always been brought up with ma'am as according to my grandmother Madames run brothels.

I don't think it would even register with me. Not something I would feel was worth getting het up over.

I guess you might expect it if you were in an upmarket London store such as Selfridge's, Harrod's or Liberty's. Elsewhere then not really. I still doubt that I would notice though.

Did they say M’arm or M’am?
one is what one would call the queen the other a military turn of phrase (and what my boys called their female teachers).

I remember reading that instructions for meeting the late Queen were to address her as Your Majesty the first time, then Ma'am to rhyme with spam.

Only happened to me once. It's weird to me because it feels so out of place in the UK. I expect it in the US, but not here. This particular guy was ma'am-ing me every 15 seconds so I just asked him to please stop.

I used to deal with an American company in one job and the PA I occasionally spoke to always called me ma'am.

I admit, I rather liked it.

God poor old shop staff. Can’t do right for doing wrong! They were just being polite

I am 53 and I don’t believe I have ever been called ma’am in the UK. It might be normal in military or aristocracy but I have never come across that for a regular person like me.

I go to the US quite a lot and I noticed about ten years ago, when I was in my early 40s, that people started to address me as ma’am. I thought it was quite nice and I took it in the well meaning way it was intended.

Christ on a bike

I got called this at uni (by an American boy) at age 19, I loved it! 😆

Yes & no! It gets used for women whether they’re married or not, it’s about age rather than status. I think Madame works the same way.

what do you want them to call you?

It is in one way.

in the UK, Ma’am as you say has been around forever. However only really used formally where there is “rank” - royal family, armed forces, police etc.

where we’re importing the Americanism is bringing it’s use into more daily use. In America it’s a normal form of address, nothing to do with military or rank.

like pp said, it seems to be normal to call your father “sir”. In the same way we now seem to be adopting the American usage of using Ma’am as respectful address for any female.

I prefer it to the whole Mrs/miss thing tbh.

Thank you for that. My Italian brother-in-law disagrees but language can be so variable!

I believe "Signorina", "Señorita" and "Mademoiselle" have now largely been dropped in favour of their married equivalents, regardless of the addressee's marital status. So I'm told, anyway.