Jack: “Merry Christmas, Bob.” / Bob: “Same to you, Jack.”

Of course Gladys and Eleanor, having graced the last generation of heroines and being at present in their social prime, will be passed on to the next generation of shopgirls - Displacing Ella and Stella, interrupted Dick. And Pearl and Jewel,, Gloria added cordially, and Earl and Elmer and Minnie.

If we wonder now how easily men are threatened by women, and how the slightest expression of feminine power can generate castration anxieties in even a big man, then perhaps we would do well to think back on the origins of agriculture.

Common in English, where in some putative compounds, such as autocrat or technocrat, both members would be combining forms.