“As Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, I picture myself as the woman with the broom and mop and bucket cleaning the Language off the floor after the party is over. And in this case it was quite a party.”
This is how the editor of the Dictionary described to process of changing the language. The party in question was a week of politics that had nothing to do with the issues at hand, but sound bites from two party leaders who changed the Parliament to a footie grandstand. Well, goodonthose who votes them in.
However, some decided to act in order to give some extra weight to this browl. The Macquarie Dictionary decided to broaden the Definition of misogyny, in order to include a bit of the meaning from the Prime Minister’s speech. So let’s have a look at the word misogyny itself.
It is unfortunate when a language does not have a word to describe a situation and has to use one from another language. But that is what English has to do for more than 20% of its vocabulary
Misogyny in Greek does not need any special definition. It is a combination of miso (hate) and gyny (woman). The extended definition is left to the philosophers and sociologist to put add-on meanings to the word, depending on the times and the people.
Of course in English, as this is a foreign word, "extended" definitions have a closer interaction with those words, as English speakers would need a bit more info on the word than just its letters. A secondary definition is appropriate, as an add-on to the actual meaning of the word. A possible third definition would have also merits, if this word exists in texts of previous eras, where there was another twist in that word.
I would like Macquarie Dictionary to have an entry like:
misogyny
1. hatred of women (literally)
2. Prejudice and discrimination against women
3. Entrenched Prejudice against women
No matter what they do, they better change the definition of misandry too:
misandry
1. hatred of males (literally)
2. entrenched prejudice against men, due to centuries of misogeny from past generations of misogynists, by confusing men as individuals with men as a dominant and privileged category of people.
Update:
This is part of a letter from the editor of the dictionary:
"It has been brought to our attention that misandry is used in a similar fashion to misogyny in texts relating to gender issues, and that misandry should have a similar second definition which covers entrenched prejudice rather than hatred. There seems, at first glance, to be evidence for this so we are looking into it. Thank you to everyone who has brought this to our attention"
Hmm, maybe if they were not so quick off the mark to follow the PM’s call, they would have thought it better and changed at the same time the two equivalent words. Oh well, lessons for next time!
This is how the editor of the Dictionary described to process of changing the language. The party in question was a week of politics that had nothing to do with the issues at hand, but sound bites from two party leaders who changed the Parliament to a footie grandstand. Well, goodonthose who votes them in.
However, some decided to act in order to give some extra weight to this browl. The Macquarie Dictionary decided to broaden the Definition of misogyny, in order to include a bit of the meaning from the Prime Minister’s speech. So let’s have a look at the word misogyny itself.
It is unfortunate when a language does not have a word to describe a situation and has to use one from another language. But that is what English has to do for more than 20% of its vocabulary
Misogyny in Greek does not need any special definition. It is a combination of miso (hate) and gyny (woman). The extended definition is left to the philosophers and sociologist to put add-on meanings to the word, depending on the times and the people.
Of course in English, as this is a foreign word, "extended" definitions have a closer interaction with those words, as English speakers would need a bit more info on the word than just its letters. A secondary definition is appropriate, as an add-on to the actual meaning of the word. A possible third definition would have also merits, if this word exists in texts of previous eras, where there was another twist in that word.
I would like Macquarie Dictionary to have an entry like:
misogyny
1. hatred of women (literally)
2. Prejudice and discrimination against women
3. Entrenched Prejudice against women
No matter what they do, they better change the definition of misandry too:
misandry
1. hatred of males (literally)
2. entrenched prejudice against men, due to centuries of misogeny from past generations of misogynists, by confusing men as individuals with men as a dominant and privileged category of people.
Update:
This is part of a letter from the editor of the dictionary:
"It has been brought to our attention that misandry is used in a similar fashion to misogyny in texts relating to gender issues, and that misandry should have a similar second definition which covers entrenched prejudice rather than hatred. There seems, at first glance, to be evidence for this so we are looking into it. Thank you to everyone who has brought this to our attention"
Hmm, maybe if they were not so quick off the mark to follow the PM’s call, they would have thought it better and changed at the same time the two equivalent words. Oh well, lessons for next time!
