tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1393674883919724980.post3336665365274861940..comments2023-07-16T10:42:00.694+01:00Comments on Psycho: Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12201420056461492643noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1393674883919724980.post-61700182441057654052011-01-12T16:35:24.797+00:002011-01-12T16:35:24.797+00:00blond/e is the one i had in mind - gamin/e i'd...blond/e is the one i had in mind - gamin/e i'd never known as an adjective, just a noun - i looked it up in the latest oed online and there it is, added in 1993 - so, yes, that one, too<br /><br />there should be a prize but you got the right answer before i could think of one - so just consider yourself the smartest and sharpest of my readersAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12201420056461492643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1393674883919724980.post-59931548933135476552011-01-12T14:46:24.188+00:002011-01-12T14:46:24.188+00:00I think vagin is a tranny word - it came from a fe...I think vagin is a tranny word - it came from a feminine Latin root then became a masculine French word - late on, as your book points out. But why? Where is a cunning linguist when you want one?<br />As for the competition, we've thought of two candidates here: blond/blonde and gamin/gamine. Over to the chairman for a ruling.<br />Of course there are also 'buxom' (female) and 'fat' (male); 'concentrating' (female), 'deaf' (male), etc etc etcLo Jardinierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10228490660541973229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1393674883919724980.post-54082754451292716142011-01-12T10:16:50.479+00:002011-01-12T10:16:50.479+00:00i'm not a linguistics expert but i do know tha...i'm not a linguistics expert but i do know that the gender thing in language is not really what it seems from an english perspective . . . the problem is that we call them masculine, feminine etc when they don't really or necessarily have anything to do with sex . . . some languages have a dozen genders but i doubt if their speakers have a corresponding number of sexes . . . there is nothing inherently sex-based in language gender . . . french la table, german neuter mädchen (young girl) . . . the reason vagin is masculine is because the word it came from is 'masculine' . . . as i discovered writing the book, the word for penis is 'feminine' in some languages . . . having grown up speaking a language without genders, we probably find it hard to get past the words 'masculine' and 'feminine' for genders but really they confuse us<br /><br />PS i mourn the loss of sex-separated nouns in english - sometimes anyway - i quite like 'chair', though not 'chair person' - i like 'mankind' (though not necessarily mankind) - but i really don't like actor for both sexes of performers - i miss both the slight raciness of actress and the pretension of actor (male only) . . . oh, and a competition . . . as far as i can figure out, there is only one gendered adjective in english - what is it?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12201420056461492643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1393674883919724980.post-16891374347599347462011-01-10T10:16:37.117+00:002011-01-10T10:16:37.117+00:00Names, names: the Countess of Loins? You wonder so...Names, names: the Countess of Loins? You wonder sometimes if people are paid by gossip columnists to make good copy. It's a terrific tale with your usual curiosity about side issues.<br />Thinking about the word 'con', I reached from the sofa for your book: yes, masculine for 'idiot' meaning and also masculine for 'female sex', deriving from the Latin 'cunnus', triangle. I wondered at how a feature of language such as gender lasts over thousands of years. But hang on, what about 'vagin'? Yep, masculine in French. This commandeering of a woman's sex into the masculine terrain is not news to feminist critics, but it bears on the point of your story, and the naming of 'L'origine du monde'. As my old boss and Jungian analyst Fernando Arroyave first pointed out to me,men are jealous of women's ability to create new life: Con envy.Lo Jardinierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10228490660541973229noreply@blogger.com