• FiskFisk33@startrek.website
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    10 months ago

    “man” as in human kind.

    I agree the linguistics here are unfortunate, but here we are, and that word, in that context, is normally gender neutral.

    Also, 28 day calendar probably means it’s the moon.

    • 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It’s important to note how we got here. In old English man just meant human. Wereman meant male and wifman meant female. Over time that “were” prefix got dropped and man now means male but the ambiguous meaning of humankind stuck around. In fact “human” comes from old french “of man”, again the non-gendered use of the word man.

      The point is to fix all these problems we just have to bring back the “were”. The progressive werewolves are way ahead of us on this issue.

      • exocrinous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 months ago

        Hunter, huntress, huntsman. Actor, actress, actsman. Waitor, waitress, waitsman.

        If we bring back the were then how are we gonna refer to male hunters, actors, and waitors?

      • FiskFisk33@startrek.website
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        10 months ago

        It would be interesting to see what in an alternate timeline, English would have looked like today if the Norman invasion never happened.