Quiz: Chairman or chairwoman?

[Laurence Horn]

>Just an observation, my recollection is that Old English had the
>compound _werman_ (though I cannot find it right now). As I recall,
>it appeared in conjunction with wifman.

Yes, "male human" was variously _werman_,
_carlman_, and _wæpnedman_ (the last with the
weapon in question interpreted metaphorically,
one assumes; the second involves a root that
survives in "churl", providing independent
plausibility for my nomination of
"verman/vermen").

LH

>
>Barbara
>
>Barbara Need
>UChicago
>
>>At 12:47 AM -0500 11/3/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>Let's simply spread the use of the English equivalent of Latin _vir_,
>>>still alive only in "werewolf,"
>>
>>there's always wergild...
>>
>>>as the opposite of "woman," leaving
>>>"man" to mean "human being," as "homo" originally meant in Latin.
>>>
>>>-Wilson
>>
>>Nice thought, but a friendly amendment:
>>
>>  (i) Since _wer-_ is pretty much extinct, we might as well go with
>>the Latin cognate _vir_, still alive in virile, virtue, virago,
>>triumvirate, etc.
>>(ii) On the model of _wi:f-man_, which has undergone the usual
>>ease-of-articulation reductions to arrive at _woman_, I propose that
>>we get those changes out of the way ahead of time, leaving us with:
>>  _vir_ + _man_ > virman, pl. _virmen_.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>>
>>>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:
>>>>
>>>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>>>>  header -----------------------
>>>>>  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:
>>>>>    ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>>>>  header -----------------------
>>>>>  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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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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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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>>
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