Quiz: Chairman or chairwoman?

[Wilson Gray]

Let's simply spread the use of the English equivalent of Latin _vir_,
still alive only in "werewolf," as the opposite of "woman," leaving
"man" to mean "human being," as "homo" originally meant in Latin.

-Wilson

On 11/2/06, Troy <foxfoot at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Troy <foxfoot at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Quiz:  Chairman or chairwoman?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Well, as an intern teacher of "first-year composition"
> - I'd say that the "_man" makes "Chairman" non-gender
> neutral for the same reason I can't teach "freshman
> composition" in today's cultural climate.
>
> ...and to be honest - I think there's something to it.
> Of course there is always the "Chairperson" option
> which while decidedly clunky, at least avoids complete
> dehumanization / objectification of the role.
>
>
> --- Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society
> > <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Quiz:  Chairman or chairwoman?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > How do we know that "chairman" is gender-specific ?
> > If it is, hasn't it become so only since the
> > introduction of "chairwoman" ?
> >
> >   JL
> >
> > "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
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> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
> > Subject: Quiz: Chairman or chairwoman?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 11/2/2006 04:06 PM, Page Stephens wrote:
> > >What do you call an actress these days, a woman
> > actor or simply an actor?
> > >
> > >As far as I can tell the use of a word which
> > denotes the sex of a person is
> > >going out of style and therefore the use of gender
> > specific words denoting
> > >the sex of the person is disappearing..
> > >...
> > >The men got there first ...
> >
> > A short quiz (do NOT consult your local OED, or
> > other historical dictionary).
> >
> > Which came first, chairman or chairwoman?
> >
> > By how many decades?
> >
> > How many centuries later did chair arrive? (For the
> > occupier, not
> > the place he sat.)
> >
> > Which came first, chairwoman or chair?
> >
> > Joel
> >
> >
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--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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