Subject: cetacean sexism

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's the first ex. of def. 2:

_1375_ BARBOUR *Bruce* III. 626 And thar schip thai lychtyt sone..And scho,
that swa wes maid lycht, Raykyt slidand throw the se.
FWIW (but not ITMA) OED has "he" applied to inanimate things from "a1200." I
don't see any refs. to ships, however.

Regarding whales, it may be superfluous to note that while whales have sex
(in both senses of the phrase), ships do not.

JL


On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Subject: cetacean sexism
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 7/6/2010 11:18 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Amy, you couldn't have learned it here because it looks wrong. OED
> includes
> >an ex. from Barbour in 1375.
>
> Jon, can you further identify the Barbour quote (head word and text)?
>
> Joel
>
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