vivacious

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:25 PM -0400 7/9/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>In the late '70s I was told that "vivacious" was sexist and should not be
>used.

I think of "pert", "perky", and "sultry" as
(almost) equally female-restricted as "vivacious"
(and "sultry" as brunette-restricted).  Also
"petite" (not too many men are described as
"petit" in English).  And "buxom", but at least
there's a fairly obvious motivation for the
asymmetry in that case.

LH

>
>On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 10:14 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: vivacious
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Me, too. I'm not sure sure what vivacity in the personality of a man
>>  would look like.
>>
>>  -Wilson
>>
>>  On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 11:53 AM, Jesse Sheidlower<jester at panix.com> wrote:
>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>>  > Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: vivacious
>>  >
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  >
>>  > On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 08:50:25AM -0700, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>  >> NYT Magazine, 7/5/09, Mark Leibovitch, "On the Coast of Crazy" (about
>>  >> Gavin Newsom), p. 29:
>>  >>
>>  >> Â  He is vivacious and something of a political thrill-seeker ...
>>  >>
>>  >> my eye was caught by "vivacious", which sounded a bit odd to me used
>>  >> of a man. Â NOAD2 says:
>>  >> Â  (esp. of a woman) attractively lively and animated
>>  >>
>>  >> (AHD4 and the OED have no note.)
>>  >>
>>  >> raw google webhits have "she is vivacious" slightly ahead of "he is
>>  >> vivacious", but only slightly. Â and the relevant OED cites are pretty
>>  >> well balanced. Â so i'm not sure why i (and NOAD2) associate
>>  >> "vivacious" with women more than men.
>>  >
>>  > FWIW, I share this association.
>>  >
>>  > Jesse Sheidlower
>>  > OED
>>  >
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>>
>>  --
>>  -Wilson
>>  â¤"â¤"â¤"
>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>  come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>  -----
>>  -Mark Twain
>>
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