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I'm seeing Greek, Latin, Japanese, German, and Danish just skimming the "male words", and plenty of the "female words" have been used in English for ages. I thi
by djur 5y ago
I'm seeing Greek, Latin, Japanese, German, and Danish just skimming the "male words", and plenty of the "female words" have been used in English for ages. I think that's more a familiarity effect.
- TulliusCicero 5y agoOf course the roots of English include Greek and Latin and German, but words like femtosecond or piezoelectricity or teraflop or milliamp are technical terms, not old but standard words imported from another language. Maybe "femtosecond" was used by Danish scientists in the 1800's or something, but it's definitely not a word that was common in another language and then imported into English.
- BeefWellington 5y agoMaybe "femtosecond" was used by Danish scientists in the 1800's or something, but it's definitely not a word that was common in another language and then imported into English. Worth noting that by the percentages here fewer than 50% of males surveyed were familiar with it.
- djur 5y ago"Chambray", "chignon", "bandeau" etc. are also standard technical words imported from another language.