Master and Command

I am not referring to Patrick O'Brian's naval saga on my subject line. It's on something else.

Recently, an internet acquaintance invited the world to visit her 12-year-old son's audio-visual media clip. I visited the young person's work. It was really a createive and original piece of work. I made a mistake of calling her son 'Master Johnson'. This episode spawned the 20-questions (okay, maybe three).

When I called her son "Master...", it was a subtle double entendre. Perhaps she didn't understand and thought I had been unscrupulous in digging into her privacy.

The word master has several definitions. One of which is referring to a male child who is not yet an adult. It's a formal if not an archaic English word. I called young Johnson as such because I have high regards for his person as an artist. In any case, Mrs. Johnson thought I'd somehow found out her son's real name. I have no idea what her son's first name is. I didn't care to know at any rate.

The second reason I chose to call young Johnson "Master" was because he has mastered some technological skills very few of his age or even adults could have achieved.

As for my knowing Master Johnson's surname, because of his mother's email address in her correspondence to me on some other particulars.

I have to agree with other scholars that proper English usage is on the demise. Our generation doesn't care or want to understand the beauties of our native tongue anymore. We no longer master and command the language of Shakespeare. That is the sad truth.