Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
>
> > Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 20:33:44 +1300
> > 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.
>
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.
> Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)
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