From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!uwvax!jon Newsgroups: net.nlang Title: sexless words Article-I.D.: uwvax.469 Posted: Wed Jul 7 14:38:39 1982 Received: Thu Jul 8 01:36:20 1982 I would prefer to see Laura's decree (that 'man' is strictly neuter) take effect, than see 'chairperson,' 'fireperson,' etc. People who are currently refered to as 'men' could be refered to as 'males' without great difficulty. This change would preserve an important consideration: short words. No word is replaced with a longer one. (Of course, politicians are busily lengthening words all the time, but the I still think short words are better) Of course, the option that will succeed is one which is already taking place: replacement of -man words with something completely different. mailman = letter carrier fireman = firefighter stewardess = flight attendant waitress = server (this one I hate) Again, we see the addition of syllables in making the change, but at least the words aren't as ugly. Maybe once the terms are entrenched, natural linguist processes will shorten them firefighter --> fireter flight attendant --> hey, you! letter carrier --> computer