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"son" is a lot easier to say than "daughter"...and it sounds less formal too. But then again, who am I to know?Maybe you know more than the rest of us know, Gonoldothrond*. Akio Morita, the founder of Sony Corp., is said to have come up with the name SONY after visiting America and falling in love with the sound of "sonny". I can't imagine anyone calling a company with global ambitions "Daughter" or any variation of "Daughter". [* Or "Gonoldothrond" either.  BTW is "Gonold" your first name, as in "Gonold o'Thrond"?] Come to think of it, there is no diminutive for "daughter" as there is for "son". Sometimes the answer to a tough question is a lot more obvious than we expect. Good call!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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to address another man as ‘son’ is really to call into question the addressee’s masculinity
I would say it calls into question maturity and status rather than masculinity since younger generations generally have less authority. Son implies expected obedience to the "father."
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question maturity and status rather than masculinity
Agreed. This struck me, too. I would never associate the use of "son" with questionable masculinity. I can see where it might be meant to be demeaning, but by indicating the superiority of the speaker. Perhaps more akin to the offensive use of "boy." But that's a whole nother topic.
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For a man to address another man as ‘son’ is really to call into question the addressee’s masculinity.
Perhaps I should have been more specific and written: For a man to address another man, who is relatively close in age, and could in no way be the other’s father, as ‘son’ is really to call into question the addressee’s masculinity.
Of course, I can only write about this based on my own observations, but the times I have seen this occur, the man calling the other man ‘son’ was doing it to demean the other man. He was not addressing him in a fatherly, mentoring, understanding, caring way, but in a derisive, mocking, disdainful way, very much like the use of ‘boy’, as nancyk points out.
I agree that it also calls into question the addressee’s maturity (“you’re not as mature, wise, knowledgeable, worldly, etc. as I”) and status (“you are beneath me”), but I suggest that such an insult, directed specifically toward the addressee’s role as a male, calls into question his masculinity too – not his gender – and implies that he is more effeminate, thus less ‘manly’ than the addressor – essentially, an insult. I further suggest that such an insult is also a challenge for the addressee to respond in such a way as to disprove such a proposition (usually a physical response is what is hoped for by the addressor), the lack thereof, by default (at least in the addressor’s mind), proves the proposition.
Anyway, that’s my impression, based on the times I’ve seen the word ‘son’ used in a demeaning manner. It may be that such a usage is a regional thing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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In the UK in such a situation the agressor would probably say "Wanna make something of it, sonny" rather than "Wanna make something of it, son". It suggests that the other is less masculine in the sense of being less macho. As you say J it doesn't call his sexuality into question, otherwise it would probably be "Come on then, girly".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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What about the term "old son", which in my experience is/was used by the British? Is that derogatory?
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