Only by you, Jive Turkey, and perhaps a small handful of other people whose minds tend to run in such directions. I can assure you that a reasonable person would not interpret it thus.
Er, the square brackets indicate that it was added ten minutes after the original post and an hour or more before you replied with the post that was rendered redundant and nonsensical by it.
Do you have as much trouble understanding the use of square brackets as you have understanding the uncontentious and unexceptionable use of the word “girl”?
And do you think these problems you’re having with the English language could be attributable to your having been too fully immersed in a Chinese-language environment, or rather to the shortcomings of your basic education?
Be careful of using a word like “niggardly”. Some less astute poster might confuse it with a word that sounds partly like it and upbraid you for being offensive.
Only by you, Jive Turkey, and perhaps a small handful of other people whose minds tend to run in such directions. I can assure you that a reasonable person would not interpret it thus.[/quote]
JT, you seem to be the only one upset here. Why? My wife’s in her 20s, most assuredly a “woman” in the sense of physical and emotional maturity, yet she sees no problem with being called a girl either in Chinese or English. (actually, she thinks that “girl” sounds better!) She just told me that she hopes that when she’s 60, she’ll still be my “girl”. 
Be careful of using a word like “niggardly”. Some less astute poster might confuse it with a word that sounds partly like it and upbraid you for being offensive.[/quote]
Check this out:
jacobsen.no/anders/blog/arch … ardly.html
I lost it - what are we discussing?
Be careful of using a word like “niggardly”. Some less astute poster might confuse it with a word that sounds partly like it and upbraid you for being offensive.[/quote]
Check this out:
jacobsen.no/anders/blog/arch … ardly.html[/quote]
Yup, those with long memories may have caught on to my little joke using the word ‘niggardly’.
Maoman, your wife is Taiwanese, right? Non Native English speakers aren’t the best qualified to distinguish the subtle differences between words of the the English language. Especially, since language is largely influenced by culture and is therefore always changing. In a culture where cuteness in women seems to be valued over maturity, it doesn’t surprise me that many Taiwanese women would be prefer to be called “girls”.
In any case, Jive Turkey has brought up a topic that is being debated in more places than just this forum. Many grown women in America, especially professional women, do get offended when called a “girl”.
And while I’m not offended by the term"girl", I prefer to be called a woman. In fact one time during a job interview in the U.S, the interviewer mentioned something about a “girl” that was working there. So, I coyly replied “Oh, you have girls and boys working here?” He laughed, then apologized and I got the job.
I bet that in a few years dictionaries will follow Longmans and state that the word “girl” when refering to an adult can sometimes be considered offensive.
Maybe when calling someone a girl or a woman, it’s better to underestimate the age, so to be on the safe side we say ‘girl’ is a compliment to say how young she looks. No insult is intended.
But there are exceptions, Ironlady is a lady (obviously), Daasgrrl is a grrl, and Alien is just scary.
Then again, I’ve never even seen a girl (never mind a woman) before, so what do I know ?
My daughters are girls, after all they are 3 and 6 years old.
Back when I was dating my wife I said that was together with a “girl”, without meaning any harm whatsoever. Now I would refer to her as a woman, the missus and something else.
I would say that Americans don’t understand their own language, and when they can say “soup nazi” then I can say girl about any younger unmarried female.
Be careful of using a word like “niggardly”. Some less astute poster might confuse it with a word that sounds partly like it and upbraid you for being offensive.[/quote]
Check this out:
jacobsen.no/anders/blog/arch … ardly.html[/quote]
Thanks for the splendid reference to a superbly apposite article, Kahna. While the nonsense it refers to is deeply dismaying, it says all that needs saying on this subject with unanswerable clarity and sense. Let me just quote one short paragraph from it, to stand as a final plea to JT and like-minded would-be censors (oh, how that word sends unpleasant shivers down my spine!) to take some of that sense on board and please don’t be so ready to call out for proscribing or diminishing any words of our language without good cause.
“Firing people because they master the English language better than their critics? I totally understand that words or phrases that imply that a certain person is of lesser value due to his or her colour, gender or religion are sensitive, but just don’t take it too far and start censoring words that do not have this meaning or intent!”
I realise no-one is listening to me, but I’ll say it again anyway 
IMO the problem is this:
Male/Female
boy/girl
guy/girl
man/woman
It’s the fault of the English language (and possibly reflective of the historical attitude of men towards women, but I won’t go there 
) that there is no better equivalent - if there were a decent, widely-used and accepted alternative there wouldn’t be this controversy. I’d complain, but I already used up all my energy back home defending my use of ‘Ms’
you forgot:
guy/babe
me bloke/me bird
[quote=“Omniloquacious”]
Er, the square brackets indicate that it was added ten minutes after the original post and an hour or more before you replied with the post that was rendered redundant and nonsensical by it.[/quote]
Sorry, Omni, but I’m at the office. I’m often interrupted while posting and since I’m posting from China through a poor, phone line connection, it often takes quite a few tries to post successfully. You made your original, unrevised post at 9:17. My post finally went through at 10:11. Not yet an hour. Furthermore, you could have added your comments about Longman
People, people, this is what womyn was coined for.
There are indeed times when the term “woman” works far better --“Goddamn girl driver! Why can’t you watch where you’re going!” just doesn’t have the same derogatory ring to it as “woman driver.”
JT, as a fellow American, I beg you to give up. Your argument applies to politically correct Americans (more likely politically correct male Americans who acquiese to get laid (gotta get along to go along, right?)) but not to most other English speakers. Not even to me, actually. “Old girl” is guaranteed to give the blue-haired a thrill where I come from (Kansas), and it’s a fun one to watch delivered (they tend to give you a big querulous smile). It’s actually perceived as quite charming, if delivered with some basic measure of aplomb, I believe.
Give it up already. It’s ok, we understand, you fought the good fight. Ok?
Cuz this is getting real tiring, skipping all these long-ass posts between you and Omni.
I think we can all at least agree that P. Diddy and Snoop Dogg probably have the most PC term for the distaff side, no?
[quote=“daasgrrl”]I realise no-one is listening to me, but I’ll say it again anyway IMO the problem is this:
Male/Female
boy/girl
guy/girl
man/woman
It’s the fault of the English language (and possibly reflective of the historical attitude of men towards women, but I won’t go there ) that there is no better equivalent - if there were a decent, widely-used and accepted alternative there wouldn’t be this controversy. I’d complain, but I already used up all my energy back home defending my use of ‘Ms’ [/quote]
Can you expound your argument a little more? I don’t understand; do you mean that because there are 4 ways to say Male but only 3 to say Female, we have the JT vs. Omni argument?
Alternative to what?
Shouldn’t that be guy/gal? 
[quote=“flike”]Can you expound your argument a little more? I don’t understand; do you mean that because there are 4 ways to say Male but only 3 to say Female, we have the JT vs. Omni argument?
Alternative to what?[/quote]
All right, I don’t need your pity 
I meant alternative to ‘guy’. Everyone mostly accepts ‘guy’ as a value-neutral term for an adult male. There really isn’t a similar term for an adult female, since the comparative term, ‘girl’, carries the ‘little girl’ meaning as well as the ‘adult female’ one and hence can easily be taken the wrong way as being patronising etc. Yes, I guess I am saying if we had such a term, there wouldn’t be any controversy over the appropriate word to use. But what fun would that be?
Yeah, don’t help me here, Rascal 