Why are there gendered words for some professions like actor and actress but not e.g. doctor and doctress?
In: 1937
English is really a casserole of words borrowed and adapted from other languages. Some of those languages are inherently gendered, others not.
Also, distinctions like actor/actress can be useful when the roles they perform are themselves gendered. If you’re casting the role of a mom, you probably only want actresses to audition.
Timing. The idea of a female doctor didn’t really hair until the language around the profession had been largely locked in. English had become less gendered over time so by the time we had a large number of female doctors, it was easier to just use the same word and an adjective if it’s really necessary to know the gender.
Why is the plural of goose, geese, but the plural of moose isn’t meese?
Technically a female doctor is a doctrix.
For any noun that ends in -tor as the masculine, the femenine should end in -trix. But that has really fallen out of style in the english speaking world.
Fun fact, the reason it’s acr*tress* and not ac*trix* is because when women being actors was made legal in medieval England the law specifically spelled it actress. Don’t know if it was just a hungover scribe or what, but that’s the reason. Prior to the 1500’s it was spelled actrix, then after it was legalized it was spelled actress.
Well back when the word doctor was invented women weren’t it and by the time women were it nobody cared enough to make a new word
I mean there are probably more nuances but.. “Actor” is a job, but “Doctor” is a title.
You go to visit Doctor Smith at the hospital.
You don’t go watch Actor Travolta at the movies.
As a portuguese speaker, most professions are gendered
Doctor is Doutor (M) or Doutora (F)
Lawyer is Advogado or Advogada
Waiter is Garçon or Garçonete
I guess its a heritage from our language latin’s roots
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The English language was birthed by Norman men-at-arms trying to seduce Saxon bar wenches, then raised on almost a thousand years of piracy. It doesn’t so much borrow words from other languages as much as it chases them down dark alleys, beats them over the head and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.
Because there’s no reason too. A doctor is a doctor. But sometimes you need a woman actor or a male actor specifically.
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