Timeline for Can one use 'man' like one can use 'woman' as an adjective?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 10, 2020 at 13:40 | comment | added | nnnnnn | The first time I heard that riddle my initial thoughts were 1. "The mother". 2. How is that a "riddle", there's no trick because it's immediately obvious that the doctor is the other parent. The vast majority of people do not have two dads, so why would I base my answer on that? When it comes to things that we all "know" in the sense of having been conditioned to expect, I'd have thought the idea that "parents" means "mum and dad" would have much more influence than the idea that doctors are men. | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 9:00 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | The expression man midwife was used in the 18th century, meaning a doctor specialising in obstetrics as distinct from a traditional midwife without formal training. | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 5:51 | comment | added | Xanne | We’are getting used to “woman” as a substitute for female. But if a computer programmer programs computers and so does a woman programmer, what does a man programmer program? | |
| Apr 14, 2019 at 21:01 | history | edited | WendyG | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
replaced male with man
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| Apr 14, 2019 at 19:27 | comment | added | TrevorD | This doesn't address what I understood to be the main point of the Q., namely the use of man v. male as an adjective, compared with the use of woman v. female as an adjective. I do not agree that 'male doctor' "sounds silly": as indicated in my comment below the other answer, I think that man doctor sounds more unusual that male doctor, whereas woman doctor does not sound more unusual that female doctor. | |
| Apr 14, 2019 at 18:55 | history | edited | WendyG | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added more
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| Apr 14, 2019 at 18:45 | history | answered | WendyG | CC BY-SA 4.0 |