A.W.A.D. - Words Relating Specifically to Men/Women

with Anu Garg
As we head towards equality of the sexes, the same word works fine for both. Today one who teaches is simply a teacher, compared to earlier days when we had teachers and teacheresses, depending on their anatomy. This is a good thing: why have two separate words when a person's gender has no bearing on the job? But sometimes separate words are necessary to convey a distinction. This week we'll feature five words that relate specifically to either men or women, and we'll also include words for him or for her.

maritorious
PRONUNCIATION: (ma-ri-TOR-ee-uhs)
MEANING: adjective: Excessively fond of one's husband
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin maritus (married, husband)

NOTES: The word to describe a husband who is excessively fond of a wife is uxorious. The word maritorious is rare, while uxorious is fairly well known. What does that say about the relative fondness of husbands and wives to each other?
patrocliny/patricliny
PRONUNCIATION: (PA-truh-kli-nee)
MEANING: noun: Inheritance of traits primarily from the father
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek patro- (father) + klinein (to lean). Ultimately from the Indo-European root klei- (to lean) that is also the source of lean, incline, ladder, lid, client, climate, and climax

NOTES: The female counterpart of this term is matrocliny.
misogyny
PRONUNCIATION: (mi-SOJ-uh-nee)
MEANING: noun: Hatred of women

NOTES: The opposite of misogyny is philogyny and its male counterpart misandry. An equal opportunity hater would be misanthrope.
materfamilias
PRONUNCIATION: (may-tuhr-fuh-MIL-ee-uhs)
MEANING: noun: The female head of a family, household, tribe, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin materfamilias, from mater (mother) + familias, from familia (household), from famulus (servant, slave)

NOTES: Paterfamilias is the masculine equivalent of the word.
pseudandry
PRONUNCIATION: (su-DAN-dree)
MEANING: noun: The use of a male name as a pseudonym by a woman
NOTES: Many women wrote under male pen names because in the 18th and 19th centuries it was considered scandalous for a woman to write a book. The English novelist Mary Ann Evans wrote as George Eliot. Also, in olden times, people didn't take a woman's writing seriously.
The counterpart of pseudandry is pseudogyny where a man takes a woman's name as a pseudonym. The rationale here is that people expect certain genres, such as romance, to be written by women.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek pseudo (false) + andro (male).

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