manizer (1977)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

There's a new biography of Henry Willson, the agent who "invented" Rock
Hudson and other Hollywood heartthrobs. According to reviews, the author
Robert Hofler refers to Willson as a "beefy, tough-talking, chronically
phobic, archconservative homosexual" and "the ultimate manizer".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100601518.html
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/review/book/0,6115,1111165_5_0_,00.html


* manizer = a philandering heterosexual woman or homosexual man

1977 _Lima (Ohio) News_ 19 May 24/1 There's..Christina Stockwood, a
"manizer" whose rocky marriage provokes her into entertaining herself with
office help. [about Norman Lear's TV series "All That Glitters"]

1985 _Houston Chronicle_ 15 Sep. 22 (Factiva) He's always been a
tremendous womanizer, and Lucky is just like daddy, except she's a
"manizer."

1987 Ellen Goodman in _Washington Post_ 25 Feb. A19/5 When more women get
to high political power, will they be different? Will we have equal ratios
of manizers among the crowd?

1988 Lawrence Sanders _Timothy's Game_ 147 If a guy who plays around a lot
is called a womanizer, what do you call a woman who does the same thing -
a manizer?

2002 Maureen Dowd in _New York Times_ 12 May (Nexis) "Unfaithful" has been
hyped as a bold gender-bender because it has a manizer instead of a
womanizer.


* manize, manizing

1985 _Houston Chronicle_ 15 Sep. 22 (Factiva) Lucky is into power. She
builds hotels, she has a rivalry with a Christina Onassis-like blonde and
she "manizes" as much as she likes, which is a lot. If a man can
"womanize," reasons Collins, a woman can "manize."

1986 _Atlanta Journal-Constitution_ 6 Oct. B1 (Factiva) Julia Sugarbaker
(Dixie Carter) is in cahoots with her manizing (that's the female form of
womanizing) baby sister, Suzanne (Delta Burke).

1987 Ellen Goodman in _Washington Post_ 25 Feb. A19/5 Why haven't there
been any "manizing" scandals about political women?

1987 _Los Angeles Times_ 27 May 4 (Proquest) Amid all the flap about Gary
Hart's putative "womanizing," I can't help wondering: Is there a
counterpart term for the opposite sex? I mean, can we say that promiscuous
women (and, by extension, gay men) are guilty of "manizing"?

2003 _Los Angeles Times_ 27 Sep. E1 (Proquest) In these he offered
glimpses into the working and drinking, procrastinating and womanizing (or
manizing) habits of Vladimir Nabokov, Toni Morrison, Truman Capote, Hunter
S. Thompson, Susan Sontag, Seamus Heaney, A.S. Byatt, James Baldwin,
Tennessee Williams, Italo Calvino and countless more.


--Ben Zimmer