Is it the word saboteuse considered archaic (or not fully added from French)?
Should all saboteurs be referred to as such regardless of sex?
Is it the word saboteuse considered archaic (or not fully added from French)?
Should all saboteurs be referred to as such regardless of sex?
Saboteur is a gender-neutral term for one who sabotages. Use saboteur for both male and female. However, the OED does say that the feminine term for a saboteur is “saboteuse.” Still, I would say that it’s fairly uncommon.
Some dictionaries acknowledge the -euse feminine agentive suffix for some words:
chauffeuse
Oxford Living Dictionaries
danseuse
American Heritage Dictionary
masseuse
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
coiffeuse
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
chanteuse
Oxford Living Dictionaries
raconteuse
Collins English Dictionary
I don't see saboteuse in any dictionary, but wait ten years and we'll see.
Related is English agentive suffixes (-er and -tress) or Latin (-tor and -trix)
They may pop up and disappear throughout history with little predictability as far as I can see.
If I had to guess, I'd say in general English words are combining the feminine and masculine suffixes into one, whereas words in specialist domains are continuing to maintain the differences, probably because people want to have a special-sounding title. That's a pure guess, and I'd like to be corrected or listen to another guess.