OT Hard Information (was Re: Gender Neutral)

[Kirsten Zerbinis <salmonzerbinis -at- rogers -dot- com>]

I know this was a couple of days ago, but I was sick, and I break out 
in hives if I have to let this sort of  word-root speculation go by 
when I can contribute hard information.  :->  Please allow me to 
contribute what I just copied from Dictionary.com:

"MAN  [Middle English, from Old English mann . See man- 1in 
Indo-European Roots.]

Usage Note: Traditionally, many writers have used man and words derived 
from it to designate any or all of the human race regardless of sex. In 
fact, this is the oldest use of the word. In Old English the principal 
sense of man was “a human,” and the words wer and wyf (or wæpman and 
wifman ) were used to refer to “a male human” and “a female human” 
respectively. But in Middle English man displaced wer as the term for 
“a male human,” while wyfman (which evolved into present-day woman ) 
was retained for “a female human.” Despite this change, man continued 
to carry its original sense of “a human” as well, resulting in an 
asymmetrical arrangement that many criticize as sexist. "

In my experience, most of our very basic words (words for body parts, 
animals, common implements, and the like) have Germanic roots, not 
Roman.

Etymologically,

Kirsten Zerbinis,
Lovin' the online dictionary




On Wednesday, March 5, 2003, at 02:04 PM, Craig Branham wrote: