Subject: cetacean sexism

[Amy West]

On 7/6/10 12:02 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Mon, 5 Jul 2010 22:07:12 -0400
> From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: cetacean sexism
>
> A viewing of John Huston's vastly underrated film of_Moby Dick_  (1956)
> raises the question of why whales should be generically female.  Even when
> it's pretty sure to be Moby, the lookout cries "There she blows!"
>
> I don't know what they say in Japanese or Norwegian (probably something like
> "I have a sonar contact"), but this familiar English usage seems not to have
> been commented on.
>
> JL

Good question!

The OE word, hwael is masculine, so that's not the answer. Is it simply
extending the ship gender usage? And I just recently learned that that
usage is comparatively recent (1700s) (did I learn that here?).

--
---Amy West

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