Chaucer et al

[Jonathan Lighter]

Possibly of interest:

  1875 _The Riverside Magazine_ (Apr.) 185: Oh yes, I got a packet ship, / Her name's the _Henry Clay_.

  It is sexist to deny "feminine" status to submarines - especially the nuclear, MIRV-equipped kind.

  JL

GLL <guy1656 at OPUSNET.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: GLL
Subject: Re: Chaucer et al
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> Personally when I see 'they' as a singular my evaluation
> > of the writer's maturity and subject competence drops sharply.
:
: So much the worse for Chaucer, Shakespeare, et al. But it's nice to
: have standards.
:
: >I also take 'points off' for writers who mix up 'blond' and 'blonde.'

... but the use by Chaucer of -e and other gender markers of his time earns
him the points back.

Now - does anyone think it's odd to call a submarine a 'she?'
I think that German makes an exception. There was also an old saw that the KM
battlecruiser 'Bismarck' was referred to in the masculine, but this did not
apply to [her] sister ship 'Tirpitz.'

Comments?

-GLL

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