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wwh Offline
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Dear maverick: Before Sparteye gets close enough to whisper in your ear, do you solemnly swear that you are not a tragolimiac?


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On my mother's gravy.


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What a fabulous list! I forgot about doxy, it sounds so cute!

But I can't help noticing that the list is short on words for forceful positive attributes, those that are have transmogrified into negatives (virago, and maybe bedlam). Tomboy is a phrase that was used to describe me in my childhood, but I never felt like I was acting like a boy, I just felt I was acting like me.

I've seen attempts to recover the word "crone"; some women are having "croning" ceremonies to celebrate the onset of menopause. I applaud the effort, though I gotta admit I'd hesitate to describe myself that way. Unless I can be like Baba Yaga and live in a chicken-legged house.


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>short on words for ... positive attributes

it seems to be a fact of the human condition that we end up with lots of words for 'negative' concepts. take the hundreds of words for the condition of being drunk for an example. or ask me about my 'ship of fools' sometime...


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I can't help noticing that the list is short on words for forceful positive attributes, those that are have transmogrified into negatives

In a male-dominated society, that is surely to be expected. Similar bias can be seen in the way our dextral world describes the blessed few born sinistral. Personally, I think it's just amino acid envy


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blessed few born sinistral

i was, and for some kooky reason i suspect that a disproportionately high percentage of other AWADers are, as well.

a show of hands, perhaps??


#22571 03/13/01 07:45 PM
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I am right-handed, but almost every especially significant person in my life is left-handed, including my father, my husband, my older son, my younger son, my best male friend, and my best female friend, and several others within my near circle. I have often wondered why I have a right-brain personality but am right-handed.


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a show of hands, perhaps??

Not a good idea, Bridget, the poor dextrals might feel left out!



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Which hand should the ambisinistrous hold up?


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ambisinistrous

I don't care, you get 1 squajillion bonus points for using a word that I thought I had coined! The truly ambisinistrous have my admiration, all the more so now that I know I am not alone in using the word.


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