AT a restaurant in the Penarth area, which I visited at lunchtime on January 17 with two companions, I was a little disconcerted to note that we were addressed more than once as "guys".

I am now well over 60, and my two companions were, as it happens, both over 80 - one of whom was female, to boot.

It would appear that, in its modern usage, the word "guy" can refer equally to men and women.

The dictionary shows this extended usage of a word, traditionally referring only to males, ("guys and dolls", for example) as an American idiom which has become very widespread in Britain in recent years, partly as a result of television programmes.

Tony Blair, who ought to know better, has used this word at press conferences to refer to the journalists of both sexes present. One could hardly imagine Harold Macmillan doing this!

It may seem "fuddy-duddy" even to mention this linguistic point, still less to make a small issue of it in print, but I for one would prefer a more traditional choice of word in place of "guys" - which may go down very well with teenagers and young adults, but which seems at the least inappropriate when relating to quite staid persons of very mature age.

The word "folks" might have been a little less offensive, even if "ladies and gentlemen" went out with Lord Reith, formerly chairman at the BBC.

Michael O"Neill

Railway Terrace

Penarth