Re: CHAT: Homo Sapiens (was: fiery spirits)

On Thursday, October 23, 2003, at 07:44  AM, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Tristan McLeay wrote:
>>> Sure, but that's not what Ray Brown was talking about.  We also need
>>> one
>>> for "female person" while we're at it.
>>
>> Woman unambiguously fits the bill, doesn't it? Perhaps I've
>> misunderstood
>> Ray's post or something.
>
> Woman is "*adult* female person".  For that matter, in my dialect, at
> least, "man" is pretty unambiguously "adult male person", if used to
> refer to an individual.  And the generic sense is pretty uncommon
> anymore.
>
> --
> "There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
> you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
> overheard
> ICQ: 18656696
> AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42
>
>
I've used and heard other people use the terms "male" and "female".
Although that's usually in plural, as in for example "there are so many
females in this room, where are all the males?".  It seems used the
most around college-age, when people don't know if they count as
'adult' men/women yet.  Some people say "guy/girl", others say
"man/woman", and others avoid the problem by saying
"male(s)/female(s)".  And then there're the really 'young at heart'
people who still say "kids" :)


-Stephen (Steg)
  "[God] knew where [Adam] was;
   He just wanted to enter with him into language..."
      ~ rashi's commentary on genesis 3:9 'where are you'