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malone jigjag tyke

Thanks for your comments. Several racehorses have contacted me to complain that the The British Horseracing Authority has also introduced a gender-neutral term, as "horse" is apparently male, and females are mares or fillies. They considered "racer", but have decided on "racist".

Grunger

I love it! Not as far-fetched as you think.

malone

I agree with you that there are people in authority who are trying to solve problems that dont exist. I spoke to Betty Batty of Making Cynical Changes.

"The MCC received a comment from a female batsman who said that she was neither a man not bats" she said. "Therefore we have changed the word so that she can be equated to a substance for frying fish."

Batty? Bats? Time will tell.

Grunger
I enjoyed reading that . Both MCCs should be ashamed of themselves. I will miss the old words when they die out. I prefer governess and schoolmistress to nanny and teacher. I suppose I will be battered into submission by these people.

Grunger (Grungeress?), I enjoyed your Betty Batty discourse - thanks for that!

Jigjag, I have to say that I have never used - when speaking of anything contemporary - 'governess' or 'schoolmistress' (or 'schoolmaster' for that matter. I think some words evolve, some words die out -and the impact on people varies tremendously. As the recent PU stuff shows, some losses are heart-felt by some, welcomed by others. The batty batter falls into another category altogether - nonsense for the sake of nonsense!

I much prefer the word batsman to batter, but it seems batter in cricket was first recorded in 1773 in these lines from a ballad:

At last, Sir Horace took the field, A batter of great might.

malone jigjag orson

Thanks for your posts. They reminded me of a friend who has started a comprehensiveschoolmistressship this term. One of my favourite words but I expect it to die out soon.

Grunger

Yes I believe it is the longest non-scientific word in common usage. Is she at a Catholic school? Catholiccomprehensiveschoolmistressships are highly sought after.

Looks like the game`s up for the `Third Man` fielding position - `Third Person` just doesn`t seem right though!

tyke

They kept saying third on TMS in the Oval Test, sounded ridiculous. And I read a report of a Womens Test where they wrote about the "nightwatch". Drives me mad. Enthralling last days of season, Lancs might do it.

jigjag

Yes she is. I suppose she has a Romancatholiccomprehensiveschoolmistressship in that case.