[Ads-l] [Non-DoD Source] Re: "man" avoidance

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cf. "woman" avoidance in the (more recent?) "pregnant people."

JL

On Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 3:51 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Now that’s a person of a different color.
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows
>
> From: Jonathan Lighter<mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2022 11:37 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: "man" avoidance
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: "man" avoidance
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> JIm Acosta, CNN:
>
> "But isn't that a bit of a strawhorse argument?"
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 5:58 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > So retro.
> >
> > "A *human* named..." is undoubtedly what we prefer today.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 1:49 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> > On Sep 26, 2016, at 12:42 PM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
> >> RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> It's like the middle-schooler who writes, _Ulysses_ is a book by a
> man
> >> named James Joyce."
> >> >>
> >> >> "A man named" adds nothing to the sentence . .  .
> >> >
> >> > Unless the assignment is "Give me a 100 word book report."  "A man
> >> named " gets you 3% farther down the road.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> But "...a human being named...", while less informative than "...a man
> >> named...", does add an additional word.
> >>
> >> LH
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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