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Is "female" offensive? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by Trincapinones@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I am not a native English speaker and I have sometimes referred to people as male and female (as that is what I have been taught) but I have received some backlash in some cases, especially for the word "female", is there some negative thought in the word which I am unaware of?

I don't know if this is the best place to ask, if it's not appropriate I have no problem to delete it ^^

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[–] Lath@kbin.earth 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

woman reads as "wo-man"
women reads as "we-men"

English is weird. I blame the British.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

While we're at it, loose and lose. Somehow taking away an o makes the vowel sound longer and makes the consonant voiced?

[–] Lath@kbin.earth 2 points 9 months ago

Contextual irregularities.

There's a loss connection in there that ties into it.

Very mish-mash sort of stuff, eh?