Chairman's Lib

The British draw the line

"Chairman" is fine, but ''Chairperson" isn't, according to one of the language's most respected arbiters, the Oxford University Press, whose new 770-page paperback dictionary states crisply; "The word chairman may be used of persons of either sex."

The dictionary, which serves as a guide to British, rather than American usage was compiled by a woman, Joyce M. Hawkins, 50. Aware that "chairperson" and its kin (e.g., "spokesperson") are increasingly accepted in the U.S., she notes, "In this country, chairperson is treated with mild amusement." The huge Oxford English Dictionary first included "chairman" a century ago, and, as Hawkins points out, its original usage made no sexual distinction. Still, Hawkins' dictionary tolerates "chairwoman," which it defines as a "female chairman."

Reflecting the inconsistencies and quirks in usage, the Oxford paperback views "salesman" as exclusively masculine (with "saleswoman" its feminine counterpart). In this case the dictionary also bows uncomplainingly to civil authority, defining without derision the term "salesperson," required by law in nondiscriminatory help-wanted advertising.

Pointedly excluded, or specifically frowned upon, are such Americanisms as "bottom line" and the use of "alibi" to mean any excuse, rather than its strict judicial meaning of being somewhere other than at the scene of a crime. But such immigrants as "commuter" and "lobby" as a verb have now been accepted into the Queen's English. Happily or not, the indelicate "hooker" has also crossed the Atlantic, although usually in Britain the term refers to rugby players.

The new dictionary does not approve of that favorite adverb of U.S. TV announcers, "momentarily," when used to mean "in a moment"; the only accepted definition is "for a moment." As a second meaning, "hopefully" used for "perhaps" or "possibly" is included, but with a warning that many people regard it as unacceptable. A reader who glumly discovers that "uninterested" is given as a second meaning for "disinterested" perks up when Hawkins complains that such a definition "obscures a useful distinction between disinterested (unbiased) and uninterested (not interested)." There will always be an England. Meanwhile a team of editors is getting ready to "Americanize" the new paperback, before issuing it here. It is to be hoped that the American editors will agree with Hawkins that the term "media" is a plural; even in America, it remains incorrect to say that the media is doing anything.

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