[Ads-l] Berkeley and gender neutral words

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jul 19, 2019, at 8:07 AM, Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
> 
> The one I had the most quizzical reaction to was clipping "Journeyman" to "Journey," only because that may be ambiguous. Is that already done as an informal shortening in the trade training system?
> 
> ---Amy West

Presumably on the model of chairman > chair, although that sense of “chair” does go back a bit further:

OED, s.v. CHAIR n., 9b
1659   T. Burton Diary 23 Mar. (1828) IV. 243   The Chair behaves himself like a Busby amongst so many school-boys..and takes a little too much on him.
1676–7   N. Grew Solution of Salts i. §1 (Read bef. Royal Soc.)   It was referred to Me by this Honourable Chair, to examine and produce the Experiment.
etc.

No entry for “journey” = ‘journeyman’, ‘journey person’.  Shades of the “yeoman” problem…

LH
> 
> On 7/19/19 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
>> Date:    Thu, 18 Jul 2019 19:40:23 +0000
>> From:    "Baker, John"<JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
>> Subject: Re: Berkeley and gender neutral words
>> 
>> I had to take a minute to see the problem with “heirs.”  While the gendered word “heiress” does exist, that’s really more of a social term; the legal term is gender-neutral “heir.”  And “beneficiaries” does not have the identical meaning, as it does not include heirs at law (those who take without a will).  But I suppose language can change in a good cause, and lawyers will still find a way to differentiate between heirs at law and beneficiaries under a will.
>> 
>> I thought at first that Berkeley was being a bit behind the times, since the struggle to minimize gendered terms stretches back for decades.  But apparently the city is also trying to support nonbinary genders; hence the opposition to “pregnant woman,” which previously would have been seen as unproblematic.
>> 
>> I haven’t figured out yet how replacing “maiden” with “family” makes sense, or for that matter why “maiden” is in the city code.  Probably the answer to either of those questions would also answer the other.
>> 
>> 
>> John Baker
> 
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