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CHAT: Blond(e) (was: anti-Sanskritism ...)

From:<jcowan@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 2, 2003, 17:36
Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> * What's the deal with "blond" and "blonde" in English, anyway? Is one of them > wrong, or are they just alternatives, or is there some sort of distinction? > Some people seem to be upholding a francoid masc/fem distinction with them?
They are both correct, both French borrowings, and are most often applied correctly (that is, "blond" for men, "blonde" for women), especially when used as nouns. However, there is a noticeable tendency to use "blond" for women as well, and it would be pedantic to correct "blond" to "blonde", though not vice versa. They are pronounced identically. Blondes (though not blonds) are stereotyped as both attractive and stupid: "dumb blondes" are the subjects of a whole species of joke. -- John Cowan www.reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com Arise, you prisoners of Windows / Arise, you slaves of Redmond, Wash, The day and hour soon are coming / When all the IT folks say "Gosh!" It isn't from a clever lawsuit / That Windowsland will finally fall, But thousands writing open source code / Like mice who nibble through a wall.

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Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>