Caddy, valet, secretary...

[Jed Dilligan]

I was shopping for stuff for my new apartment all weekend and I was struck by how many trivial objects have these weird anthropomorphic names. The compartmental tray my girlfriend got for her jewelry was a "valet." Does anyone have human valets anymore? Only the ultra-rich, I'd imagine.

Then there are caddies... I know a few people who play golf, but they don't walk the course with a caddy; they just carry their own clubs or use a cart. However, when they get coffee they might get their lid and creamer from a "caddy." The only similarity, as with the "valet," is that the object and the person both carry something.

A "secretary" is a desk set... There are barely any secretaries now in this age of "administrative assistants."

I'm not sure what to make of this, other than the thought that if a small plastic tray is given the name of your job title, you might start looking for a new job.

Are there any other words like this that I've missed? There's the "dumb-waiter," but the object itself is obsolete while the occupation thrives...

[qnr]

1. hmmm, obsolete.. perhaps, but they are still used regularly in older

buildings of larger cities (dumb-waiters, I mean)

[Jed Dilligan]

4. Really? I've never actually seen one.

It's something I read in books that I had to look up.

[qnr]

7. Yup, all over the place in the NY & NJ area (well, they were in the past,

I haven't been home in a while, but I'm relatively certain that they didn't tear down all the places I saw them in. -- And I'm pretty certain that as a kid, I didn't just luck out and see the only ones in the world :) )

[Debi]

2. Ummmm, I consider myself a secretary

and I don't think I'm an inanimate object :shrug:

[Jed Dilligan]

3. Didn't mean to imply that you were.

There is an inanimate object called a "secretary"--one of those little trays that holds a pen and a pencil. That was my point.

on edit: here's what I meant:

http://www.webordergifts2.com/shop/image.php?productid=16237

[Debi]

5. I hold a pen and a pencil

:P

[Jed Dilligan]

6. So you're ambidextrous?

I think we can agree there should be at least two less secretaries in the world... The Secretaries of State and Defense!

[Debi]

8. Yes

:rofl:

I'll agree to that!

[trackfan]

9. Jockeys have a valet - with the t pronounced.

[Jed Dilligan]

12. I take it you mean the horse riders,

not the underpants... which could be seen as a kind of caddy.... Okay, I'll stop with that thought.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

10. Andy Rooney? Is that you???

No offense or anything, but that was written very much like one of Rooney's pieces on 60 Minutes.

[Jed Dilligan]

11. DAMN! Blew my cover.

lol

[Kickoutthejams23]

13. so if you have a PA is that considered a secretary or a valet?

[Jed Dilligan]

14. Would that be a PA...

or a PDA?

[Kickoutthejams23]

15. No PA human.

[Debi]

16. I'm a PITA!

:evilgrin:

[Kickoutthejams23]

17. All right I'll bite what is a PITA

[Debi]

18. Pain In The Ass!

:bounce: