3 quoted lines
At 04:02 AM 12/3/97 -0800, you wrote:
Re: Solange as stereotypical name for a maid. Onomasticly or otherwise--do you have any examples or sources? (I've looked OED and Latin.)
You wouldn't find it in the dictionary. At one time in my life, however, I was quite interested in Restoration plays, French farce, comic opera etc. There is always a maid in these plays, she is always French, and her name is always something like Marie, Fifi or Solange. Two syllables and easy for her aristocratic mistress to scream. It's the part parodied in La Cage au Folles, if you remember that.
-alga-