Man, oh Man!

Like wow! A brief word on how I intend on using language on this site. I will use words like "he" and "man" (though not together, I think - that part of my childhood is well behind me) and I will use them in the generic sense, a default grammatical expression when the biological gender of a thing is unknown or when the group is mixed, as in Mankind.

Sexism! you cry. No. In fact it isn't. Many think so, bu that's simply because they haven't dug deeply enough. The word homo in Latin, for example, is known as a common noun. That means it can be used for humans of either sex. Likewise the word "man" began as a common noun way back before the days of dark Grendel, in the shadowy roots of continental linguistic history (think thousands of years.) Then mann in Germanic languages meant a person of either sex, and the special words wer (think werewolf) and wif-man (woman) were used when referring specifically to one or the other. Edmund Burke could use the word to use both sexes as late as the last days of the 18th century, only two-hundred years ago. ("Such a deplorable havoc is made in the minds of men (both sexes) in France")

The individual use of man has become distinct in its reference to an adult male, but the collective "Man" and "Mankind" remain, or ought to remain. Reference to the collective "human" lacks any poetic weight, after all. Too clinical.

Therefore I will use the term as it has always been used (the case is similar for "he"). My household is not a particularly sexist place, and I hold that men and women are equal in worth and in dignity. That's non-negotiable for me. But I won't needlessly sacrifice language for that, nor will I avoid or any way censor older writers.

So there.