Chaucer et al

[James Smith]

Is *blond* vs. *blonde* a difference in US vs. British
usage?


--- Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> 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:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: GLL
> Subject: Re: Chaucer et al
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > 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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James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.



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