does anyone realise that waitress is bad grammer?

Question

before you argue please explain this - if a waitress is acceptable then why do we not have doctress or authoress

Answer 1

We DO have authoress, it just isn't in common usage, and what about priestess, actress, stewardess, lioness etc? The medical profession was inherently sexist for years, so they didn't bother when women became doctors, and beside it sounds odd and doesn't really work.

Hope that helps, and there is no e in grammar ;-)

Answer 2

After listening to the english language for the last 27 years Doctress and Authoress just doesnt seem appropiate

Answer 3

It's neither bad grammar nor good. Grammar is quite different from vocabulary.

Vocabulary formation is a largely arbitrary, and owes as much to convenience, fashion, and happenstance as it does to rules. Why is the English word "red" stretched to denote colors as different as brick, apple, ember, and maroon, while three different color words are used to denote purple, violet, and indigo?

There is no rule-based reason -- the language just grew that way.

One can find historical trends and circumstances that help explain oddities such as "waitress" but not "lifeguardess", but these are explanations after the fact and not governing rules.

Two hundred years ago, I guess it was important for people to distinguish between male and female waiters, or actors, or poets. Fifty years ago, I guess it was unimportant for people to distinguish between male and female barbers, lifeguards, or programmers. Styles and preferences in language change along with culture.

Two hundred years from now, the language may have evolved new forms to distinguish robot waiters or virtual online waiters from in-person human ones. Or, possibly, not. There's really no way of knowing how the vocabulary will evolve.

Answer 4

A lot of the time wait staff are just called "servers" now, no matter what sex. Though I think "waitress" is still often used, like "actress" instead of "female actor."

I don't find waitress or actress offensive as a woman. I think it's just a more specific word - then you don't have to say "female" or "male" - it's already implied by waitress/waiter or actress/actor.

Either way, it's not really bad grammar anyway. It's a question of political correctness.

Answer 5

gender biased is different than bad grammar

only in recent years have we made the word actor to have a unisex meaning.

seamstress, mistress, hostess, countess, (ok i understand that mistress is not great support and these could be considered outdated terms- but they exist)

the romantic and even many of the eastern european languages have different spellings to denote male or female.

we have a language that is a hodgepodge or other languages to make up the vocabulary that we use today. people have been distinguishing men from women for too long. If a movement from the ground up was started- waitresses and restaurants changed the terminology or came up with new terms- it could change our language.

Everyone says server now anyway.

Answer 6

Due to the fact that we have gone to a sexist/racist whatever else-ist society one is not supposed to differentiate between male and female jobs etc. There is a masculine and feminine to everything but some bunch of idiots have decided we should not use it. Maybe it is due to the fact that the English language is being dumbed down to either put it on a par with Americanism or maybe just because our kids are not that bright any more!

Answer 7

1) Spelling 'grammar' ....'grammer' is bad spelling.
2) There IS such a word as 'authoress' and the feminine of 'hero' is 'heroine'.
3) The feminine form of 'actor' is actress'.
4) The feminine of 'waiter' is 'waitress'...whether you like it or not.

Answer 8

I guess that it's an "own goal" by the feminists. English is a non-inflected language and words like author, waiter, poet, actor, tiger, lion, are not gender specific. The attempts by some to infer that the lack of "ess" as a suffix is somehow a reflection of a male dominated society is misguided and ignorant of the constuction of the language. By using such fallacious suffixes we all fall under their bias.

Answer 9

Such words were part of the English language, but now, they have fallen out of use for being sexist. Actress and poetess are other such words. Also, instead of saying Chairman or Chairwoman, we now say Chairperson. That is more trendy. The sexist forms are archaic now.

Answer 10

Because not all words have a masculine and feminine version? It would mean that host and hostess would be incorrect too if we went with your ruling.