last-name

Verb

last-name (third-person singular simple present last-names, present participle last-naming, simple past and past participle last-named)

1. (rare) To address by last name.
   • In some schools or businesses, inferiority is underscored by last-naming alone. Superiors receive [title + last name], but inferiors are called by their last names alone. If novels and mystery stories are to be believed, in England servants were often last-named without titles, as were students. As...1982, Elaine Chaika, “[Style of speech] The United States, a case in point”, in Language: The Social Mirror, Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 49
   • The most useful test of whether unsought informality presents problems is this: when practitioners feel comfortable being first-named by their patients. If you expect to be called Doctor or Nurse so-and-so, reciprocate the respect by last-naming your patients.1983 September, Peter H[artley] Gott, “Forced Familiarity”, in Connecticut Medicine: The Journal of the Connecticut State Medical Society, volume 47, number 9, New Haven, Conn.: Connecticut State...