Oldgateboatdriver
Army.ca Veteran
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Oh very drole!
Actually: It is "sailor" that is out of date. In proper English parlance, it refers to a crew that operates a Sail ship. We have not had one of those for a while (Oriole excluded, of course).
In more modern English, "sailor" is used to refer to the actual crew of a ship only, whereby "seaman" refers to all the serving members of a country's naval forces, more particularly those below the rank of petty officer. Source: The Canadian Oxford Dictionnary.
As for the "seaman - seawoman" debate (and the confusing reason DND invented the use of "sailor" in public relation to avoid living with this decision) we settled it in the late seventies: Until then, women were reffered to as "wrens" and I can tell you that many of them, my wife included, have never accepted being deprived of the historical connection to the great achievements of this corpus. So, until then we had Ordinary Wren, Able Wren, Leading Wren, Master Wren and then the usual ranks. Suddenly, someone decided that it was sexist and we all had to use seaman but, when required (as for accommodation purposes) you would indicate one's sex with a (W). It was stupid, the old system was not broken, but they are now trying to cover up the reference to "man" by resuscitating the archaic term "sailor".
Interestingly enough, for once the problem does not arise in French, where both "marin" and "matelot" can be used indiscriminately in the masculine or feminine.
Actually: It is "sailor" that is out of date. In proper English parlance, it refers to a crew that operates a Sail ship. We have not had one of those for a while (Oriole excluded, of course).
In more modern English, "sailor" is used to refer to the actual crew of a ship only, whereby "seaman" refers to all the serving members of a country's naval forces, more particularly those below the rank of petty officer. Source: The Canadian Oxford Dictionnary.
As for the "seaman - seawoman" debate (and the confusing reason DND invented the use of "sailor" in public relation to avoid living with this decision) we settled it in the late seventies: Until then, women were reffered to as "wrens" and I can tell you that many of them, my wife included, have never accepted being deprived of the historical connection to the great achievements of this corpus. So, until then we had Ordinary Wren, Able Wren, Leading Wren, Master Wren and then the usual ranks. Suddenly, someone decided that it was sexist and we all had to use seaman but, when required (as for accommodation purposes) you would indicate one's sex with a (W). It was stupid, the old system was not broken, but they are now trying to cover up the reference to "man" by resuscitating the archaic term "sailor".
Interestingly enough, for once the problem does not arise in French, where both "marin" and "matelot" can be used indiscriminately in the masculine or feminine.