Re: CHAT: RPGs (was Re: Wargs)

Grandsire, C.A. writes:
 > Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
 > >
 > > > From: andrew <hobbit@...>
 > >
 > > > I was watching a British documentary on human sexuality last week and
 > > > got irritated enough to talk back at the tv.  Apparently women can be
 > > > polygamous with their male partners!  Obviously polyandrous is a
 > > > top-shelf word.
 > >
 > > And polygynous an even topper shelf one.
 > >
 > > The 'gam-' root in Greek is not sex-specific, as far as I remember.
 > > For instance, gamete is the common word for egg and sperm.

There are some people on the net who in fact follow this usage. I.e.,

polygamous  - having multiple spouses (spice :-), no gender specified

polyandrous - having multiple husbands (i.e., male "spice")

polygynous  - having multiple wives (i.e., female "spice")

polyamorous - any or all of the above, plus other stuff too.

That last, polyamorous (polyamory in noun form) is one whose
definition is subject of constant debate on mailing lists on
polyamory.  Polyamory has also been considered synonymous with
"responsible nonmonogamy" - e.g., you may have more than one partner,
lover, whatever, but deceit is not involved.

 >         Exactly. But strangely polygamous is used only to refer to a man with
 > various wifes. Maybe it is because the examples of polygamy that are
 > nearest to Europe are all polygyny (mostly in Mid-Eastern and African
 > countries), and that the patriarchal character of Europe made polygyny
 > more likely to be witnessed than polyandry when the word was coined.

Webster's defines it as multiple mates, but gives one many/many women
as the usual example. It then cross-refs bigamy and
polyandry. WordNet, however, lists polygamy as being a synonym for
polygyny.

Probably it originally meant multiple mates, and evolved into common
usage to mean "many wives" - after all, men are the horny ones, and
women aren't interested in sex at all (oh, and big fat :-) for the
sarcasm-impaired).



co'o mi'e brukcr

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