Pro-Life. Nerd. Synesthete. Neuroscience major. Spanish minor. Originally from Minnesota. Currently living in Nashville, TN.
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Post reblogged from Awkward but Accurate with 6 notes
Question
Why do people say “woman doctor” or “woman theologian” or “woman writer”? It bothers me. Woman is a noun. Nouns don’t modify. Adjectives do. Therefore “female” would be the appropriate word. Right? Is using woman as an adjective some sort of thing I missed?
English actually does this all the time: using nouns as modifiers. I never realized it until I started studying Spanish. Like an office chair or a soup spoon or a fruit stand or a mouse trap.
So you’re right in that female is an adjective and woman is a noun, and it’s probably more grammatically correct to say “female doctor,” but I don’t think that “woman doctor” is explicitly incorrect.
Source: awkwardbutaccurate
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doubtingansley liked this
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approximatelyinfinity reblogged this from awkwardbutaccurate and added:
English actually does this all...modifiers. I never realized it until I started studying...
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awkwardbutaccurate reblogged this from shortbreadsh and added:
Okay that makes sense. I did actually always find the word “female” to be kind of clinical. I guess I wasn’t sure if it...
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uvgt2bkdnme reblogged this from shortbreadsh and added:
English is cool that way that you can make nouns adjectives. we do it with sports all the time: the “hockey” game, a...
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shortbreadsh reblogged this from awkwardbutaccurate and added:
it this way because the word “female” has kind of been ruined for me by people who refer to women
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awkwardbutaccurate posted this
