From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: Re: pundette
Date: 16 Aug 92 05:06:39 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Windows/DOS Users Ed Group

In article <Bsz4M1.9Bz@wpi.WPI.EDU> padutton@wpi.WPI.EDU (Peter Alan Dutton) writes:
>In article <1992Aug13.153315.11686@microsoft.com> frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug10.112029.8144@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>>[deletions]
>>>
>>>I would have thought so. By the way, can someone explain why "waitron" was
>>>coined and not a different word. It is *hideously* ugly. I continue to use
>>>"waiter" and "waitress", partly because I can't think of anything else.
>>
>>I was reading Julian May's "Jack the Bodiless" last night
>>when I happened on the use of the "waitron"; this waitron
>>was clearly contrasted to her patrons. Could this be the
>>explanation of the waitron coinage: patron/waitron? If so, I
>>like the neologism a little better, since it implies a kind
>>of equality between the customer and the server; as an
>>ex-bartender, ex-wine steward, ex-bar manager, who has served many
>>[...]
>
>Uh-oh. What about bartendron and managron? And ex-wine flight attendant
>instead of ex-wine steward or ex-wine stewardess...
>
>Your maitron-d for tonight,
>Peter!
>

Humorous but unnecessarily defensive. Since there is no widely used
term bartendress, there is no need for a gender-neutral coinage to
substitute for it; bartender covers both men and women nicely. This is
my preferred solution to all these obnoxious and etymological bogus
feminizations. I can comfortably used actor for men and women (and do
so in my postings on rec.arts.movies), as do many actors. I would never
say poetess or sculptress; these are insults and have been recognized
as such for more than the two decades that I have been a poet. As for
wine steward, why not wine attendant, he asked facetiously.  Actually,
I was not the wine steward, but rather the sommelier; I did draw the
line at wearing the silver tastevin; most of my customers would have
wanted a rebate if I had dared taste their wine. I have yet to
encounter a woman wine steward, but then I seldom go these days to such
hoity toity establishments and my lover doesn't drink wine anyway, so I
seldom do. If there are such women out there, and why there wouldn't be
is beyond me, I'm sure they know what they call themselves.

Your attempt, in my opinion, to ridicule gender-neutral language is the
standard response of a certain kind of person insecure in his language,
at a minimum. Such people have been resorting to this desperate and
ineffectual strategem as long the subject has been an issue. Have you
noticed any remarkable successes in turning back the tide of
gender-neutral terminology? I haven't.

BTW, the Americanism maitre d', instead of ma^itre d'h^otel, is
inexpressibly vulgar. Please expunge it from your active list
immediately.

>(By the way, I'd assume that "patron" is probably short for "patronizer"
>as in "one who patronizes [the restaurant]". We do have a tendency
>to shorten words.)
>

You assume incorrectly, as a quick check with any repuatable dictionary
would have confirmed. Indeed, you reason, typically, backwards. The
verb to patronize derives from patron, not the other way round. Patron
entered our language in the Middle English period from the Old French
of the time. The Latin source is patronus, which in turns comes from
pater, father.

-- 
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
	"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda