This week is all about sex. We're going to explore the differences between womenkind and mankind etymologically, not anatomically [but it's still going to be fun].

Today's AWAD is "matriarch": Pls scroll down.

The AWAD for Day 1 is:

matrocliny (MA-truh-kli-nee) noun, also matricliny

Inheritance of traits primarily from the mother.

[From Latin matro- (mother) + -clino, from Greek klinein (to lean).]

Patrocliny is the male counterpart of this term.

Anu must have noticed that some of us are falling behind in our homework. So he's given us a Weekly Theme no-one can resist: sex

That's Anu. Just when you think his pitching arm is getting used up with fastballs and curves, he throws you a change-up. Everyone swings at a change-up.

But I need to say something right off the bat.

The dictionaries have the spelling of "matrocliny" all wrong. It should be "matroclinxx". And "patrocliny" should be "patroclinxy", 'cause women have two XX chromosomes and men have an X and a Y.

Actually, it's OK to spell "patrocliny" just the way it is because you can't be a man without a Y chromosome.* So you can take the X in "partrocliny" for granted.

Some women think they are being taken for granted, but I'm going to leave that one on the mound.

Anu explains:

The world of the English language is becoming genderless. ... new gender-neutral alternatives are coined: mail-carrier, firefighter, chairperson (or chair), to cite but three examples.

It's easy to brush these off as a display of political correctness but there's a reason why we're moving away from those old terms. Often the feminine equivalents of the terms have inferior connotations: imitation (leather/leatherette), small size (statue/statuette), lesser social status (governor/governess), and at times the two terms are poles apart (wizard/witch) - wizard is a compliment while witch is disparaging.

Why is it important to recognize this? It's because while our language is a reflection of our society, the reverse is also true. Our society is also shaped by the language. ...
All this is not to say that men and women are not different. They are, but where that difference is irrelevant, there is no reason to use two different terms to describe them.

* Sex Chromosomes and the Determination of Sex

"It is clear that the presence of a Y chromosome is necessary for male sexual characteristics to develop. The number of X chromosomes present does not play a significant role in sex determination."

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/sexdet.html

Matroclinous inheritance
Inheritance in which all offspring have the phenotype of the mother.

phenotype
Encyclopędia Britannica Article

all the observable characteristics of an organism, such as shape, size, colour, and behaviour, that result from the interaction of its genotype (total genetic inheritance) with the environment. The common type of a group of physically similar organisms is sometimes also known as the phenotype.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9059622&query=phenotype&ct=