Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site zehntel.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!zehntel!berry From: berry@zehntel.UUCP Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Orphaned Response - (nf) Message-ID: <1343@zehntel.UUCP> Date: Tue, 28-Feb-84 04:42:34 EST Article-I.D.: zehntel.1343 Posted: Tue Feb 28 04:42:34 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 2-Mar-84 16:36:25 EST Sender: berry@zehntel.UUCP Organization: Zehntel Inc., Walnut Creek, CA Lines: 16 #R:linus:-64100:zinfandel:9300035:177600:690 zinfandel!berry Feb 7 09:43:00 1984 Holy ****, 'employe' IS in the dictionary (at least the Oxford Universal on my desk). It seems that the word is formed from the past participle of the French verb 'employer', and back when people cared about such things, it was 'employe' for male workers and 'employee' for females. (There should be acute accents on the second 'e' of each word.) Sort of like fiance and fiancee. Since English is by and large genderless, such distinctions have sort of been lost over the years except for a few newsmagazine holdouts, it seems. No-one uses 'naif' instead of 'naive' anymore (nor do they include the umlaut). Berry Kercheval Zehntel Inc. (ihnp4!zehntel!zinfandel!berry) (415)932-6900