Monday 29 April 2013

Gender Bender or Sex Perplex, # 1

I rather giggled at this:


once I'd read far enough into the subhead to work out that the headline really meant men.

Then I started wondering and did some research. I was surprised (and not very impressed) to find that the OED lists the word as is, without accents or (as a headword) a specific masculine form:


It's notable that three of the four examples of earliest use do show accents and the gender form appropriate to the context. The 'often' in the Etymology section also seems rather disingenuous (is that more or less often than not?), so that it isn't clear whether the OED entry is conflicting with the trend or following it. Chambers 21st Century Dictionary similarly ignores the accents and defines the word as 'someone who has been divorced'.

Checking some other dictionaries suggests that the term seems to cause unnecessary confusion. Collins English Dictionary (that's UK English) lists divorcée, but offers a gender-blurred definition ('a person, esp a woman, who has been divorced')* and an unsolvable circular puzzle in the search for divorcé:


Conversely, the Collins American English Dictionary defines divorceé as 'a divorced woman' and mentions that this usage is specific to US (as opposed to UK) English; however, a search for divorcé results in the identical problem to that found in the Collins English Dictionary.

Merriam-Webster also keeps both the accent and the gender distinction ('a divorced woman'). While it takes some effort to find an entry for divorcé ('a divorced man'), it does exist, beneath noun- and verb-form entries for divorce; although the links to listings for divorcé defined 'for English-language learners' and 'for kids' lead instead to entries for divorce.

I'm aware, of course, that the English are famous for being Bad At Foreign Languages, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that the barrier between divorcé and divorcée has been broken down, or that the acute accent has been lost, however regrettable, or even ridiculous, I might think it. Yet I remain surprised: after all, the English seem to have no difficulty in retaining the accent or gender-specific ending of words relating to the starting point of marriage, fiancé and fiancée.


* and no full stop to end the abbreviation esp.
OED, however, includes only the masculine form, noting in its etymology the French feminine form, but not apparently viewing it as appropriate to English usage. Chambers, conversely, includes both terms, distinguishing the definitions by by gender, and helpfully supplying the correct plural forms.

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