Ever heard the word "herstory" before? It is pronounced like "history" only it has a "her" at the beginning instead of "his"
Yes, it was coined by womyn, and is sometimes used plafully. There are unfortunately, however people who sincerely believe (despite their advanced education) that the word history is a compound of "his" (the posessive masculine pronoun) and "story".
This is not so.
The American Heritage Dictionary describes the origins of the word as follows:
[Middle English histoire, from Old French, from Latin historia, from Greek historiā, from historein, to inquire, from histōr, learned man; see weid- in Indo-European roots.]
That's right. The word "history" is derived from Latin and Greek. Now there are many people who know more about both languages than I. However, I am certain the Latin and Greek scholars will confirm that the singular masculine possessive pronoun in both languages is not "his". Modern day Romance languages retain words derived from the same roots, such as historia in Spanish.
Etymology does not have to hamper linguistic agendas, though. If the womyn still want to get picky without uninformed back-formation of their words, they could always re-derive the word from the Greek for "learned woman".
Oops. Sorry "learned womon"
The social, cultural, spiritual, political, academic, and literary rantings of a slightly strange Catholic English teacher.
2 comments:
You said: There are unfortunately, however people who sincerely believe (despite their advanced education) that the word history is a compound of "his" (the posessive masculine pronoun) and "story".
Who are these people?? Prove that they exist. I need concrete proof that these idiots walk among us >:P
DOn't you mean "learned moron"??? As a lover of the English language, I get quite riled up by such poppycock as this. A lot of so-called "inclusive language" is based on total ignorance of idiom and language history, not to mention ignorance of linguistic roots. I'm so glad I studied Latin in school -- it's the source of so many English words and idioms, and I'm happy to see it being revived. I may take a refresher course.
Post a Comment