[Ads-l] Berkeley and gender neutral words

[Mark Mandel]

IMHO, *priestess* and *priest* are exactly parallel, but it happens that
the religions most strongly associated with the word *priest* in the US and
(most? all?) other Anglophone societies restrict that function to males.

MAM


On Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 11:48 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> And “priestess” (=/= ‘female priest).  And then there’s
> “governor”/“governess" and other asymmetrical pairs of that ilk.
>
> > On Jul 19, 2019, at 11:45 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > See also, "Huntress."
> >
> > Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36>
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Sent: Friday, July 19, 2019 6:16:23 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Berkeley and gender neutral words
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Berkeley and gender neutral words
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > "Goddess" is somehow doing well.
> >
> > The neutrality craze is based in part on the elementary fallacy that a
> > word's meaning is dictated by its etymology.  Another significant basis
> is
> > the a priori belief that speakers of English are as sensitive to nuance
> as
> > are a subset of people with Ph.Ds and must, in any case, be protected
> from
> > "-man" words, which are dangerously, irremediably sexist and malign.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 8:42 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>> On Jul 19, 2019, at 8:01 PM, Mark Mandel <markamandel at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> The Latin means "No one is an heir or a living person.=E2=80=9D
> >>
> >> Mark=E2=80=99s finger meant =E2=80=9Cof=E2=80=9D rather than
> =E2=80=9Cor=
> > =E2=80=9D; the claim as it stands is
> >> rather too strong.  More seriously, I don=E2=80=99t get the argument to
> r=
> > eplace
> >> =E2=80=9Cheir=E2=80=9D, which is parallel to =E2=80=9Cactor=E2=80=9D
> and =
> > arguably also to =E2=80=9Cpoet=E2=80=9D.  By all
> >> means, let=E2=80=99s dump =E2=80=9Cheiress=E2=80=9D,
> =E2=80=9Cadventuress=
> > =E2=80=9D, =E2=80=9Cactress=E2=80=9D, =E2=80=9Csculptress=E2=80=9D, or
> >> =E2=80=9Cpoetess=E2=80=9D, although it could be (and has been) argued
> tha=
> > t =E2=80=9Cactress=E2=80=9D
> >> performs a service that the others don=E2=80=99t, at least until
> sex-neut=
> > ral
> >> casting becomes universal; the tradeoff for sex specification may be
> deem=
> > ed
> >> worth it.  =E2=80=9CWaitress=E2=80=9D is another case, and I grant we
> all=
> > have different
> >> cutoff points. (Mine is rather different from Jon=E2=80=99s, for
> example.=
> > )  But the
> >> fact that =E2=80=9Cheiress=E2=80=9D can be plausibly argued to be
> sexist =
> > on the grounds
> >> that it marks sex of the referent when it=E2=80=99s irrelevant, I
> don=E2=
> > =80=99t see why
> >> that consideration should infect =E2=80=9Cheir=E2=80=9D, which as noted
> b=
> > elow really is
> >> just =E2=80=98one who=E2=80=99, on grounds of both usage and etymology.
> >>
> >> LH
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 4:35 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> >> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> The word [*heir*] is correctly applied to either a male or a female,
> >>>> although,
> >>>> in the latter sense, heiress n.   has been in general use since 17th
> >>>> cent. In Law a person is not called an heir to any property until,
> >>>> through the death of its possessor, he becomes entitled to it (
> >>>> *nemo est heres viventis*).
> >>>> [End excerpt]
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
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> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> > --=20
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
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