Oh my Patrick & Patricia

If you are not allowed to call someone a pleb, should you be allowed to call anyone Pat?

Pat is the shortened form of the noble Roman Patrician, adopted as a still popular first name for boys, & a now less fashionable one for girls.

By distinguishing some as the patricians among us, you are, by implication, designating the others as plebs. So you should stop doing so.

On the other hand you might claim that Pat itself is an insult, since it is a shortened form of the word Patrician which was applied to members of a sect founded by Patricius (the teacher of Symmachus the Marcionite) in the 4th century, who taught that the flesh was created by the Devil rather than God.

Link
BBC: Andrew Mitchell row
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Evidence based law