[Ads-l] alloing: alloparent, alloparenting, allomother, allomothering

[Benjamin Barrett]

The Nas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosuo), or Mosuos, are well known as a people not having marriage and have an interesting matriarchal structure. Siblings live in the same home and collectively take care of the children (see the section “Walking marriages”).

Yesterday, The Washington Post ran a review of Alison Gopnik’s book “The Gardener and the Carpenter” (Erika Christakis, "Why it’s better to be a parent than to ‘parent.’ Yes, there’s a difference.”, http://wapo.st/2bqBQcD). The article mentions the word “alloparents”.

Wikipedia has an article on alloparenting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alloparenting, including the word “allomaternal") and allomothering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allomothering). Words of this sort go back at least to 1982 according to the citations on the allomothering page.

These words are not on the online Oxford Dictionary site.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org