greg stephens >> McGrath: are you going to explain why "manhole" is not politically incorrect, because "man" in that context means "person"; but on the other hand in "chairman" the "man" implies "female".


Sorry, this assumption is not correct - this is an invaild assumption about origin of the word "chairman"

In the word "chairman" man comes from

mannus = the hand

thus it is the chair of the hand guiding the meeting.

Has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with man/woman

If we don't know the Greek and Latin roots of word in modern English, and which one to apply in which case, our ignorance will feed our confusion.

So we need knowledge.

And where do you get this knowledge?

From the cursed Academics, who have it all "writted on a piece of paper" to quote Spike Milligan :-) (entymolgoical dictionaries!)


I'm not an expert in Latin and Greek roots - when I went to primary school, it was part of the compulsory education process in the 1950's - I have NEVER regretted this part of my education - in the later "reforms" that crippled education, this sort of knowledge was deemed irrelevant or confusing and swept aside. This reponse and the orignal post that triggered it show the sort of confusion that ignorance or what then becomes "hidden knowledge" (arcane!) causes.

I never could understand why - sort of like teaching inorganic chemistry, but refusing to first give the student a basic grounding in the theory of moelcular structure or discrete atomic theory.

Robin