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On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 7:48 PM, Evelyn Lee Barney <evbarney -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote:
>
>
> Got one for you. I know a woman who INSISTS on "personing" as opposed
> to "manning" something "I don't man the booth at the county fair; I
> person the booth at the county fair." No use whatsoever telling this
> otherwise intelligent and reasonable woman that "to man" comes from the
> word "manos" (hands) and both men and women have 'em. She just won't
> tolerate being asked to "man" anything.
Hmm. My OED derives the verb "man" from the same Old English root as
the noun "man". One could make the argument that the Old English word
referred to any human being, regardless of gender. But the "manos"
derivation sounds fishy to me.
That said, using "person" as a verb in this context is just silly when
"staff" is a perfectly good gender-neutral equivalent.
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