Talking Southern – Ma’am, Sir, and Beyond

Talking Southern – Ma’am, Sir, and Beyond

Years ago, your compiler heard a snippet of the Neal Boortz Show one day on WSB as the host was discussing the word “Ma’am.”  Your compiler wishes he had caught the entire discussion so he could have known more about its context, but the little he did hear was Boortz stating he believed “Ma’am” to be an abbreviation for “Madam,” with the “d” left out.  The fellow was absolutely right – that’s exactly where it comes from.     In the South, even t…