fisherman/fisherperson

[Supperman]

Hi.
According to the movement of men-and-women-are-created-equally-theory, a "chairman" has now become to be called as a "chairperson."

I know about that. And I think it is the matter of course to call him/her as a "chairperson" instead of a "chairman" now.

Yet, I'm still uneasy to call a fisherman as a "fisherperson".

Is it a quite natural thing for a native-English speaking person to say "fisherperson" now?

[JohnBraden]

Originally Posted by Supperman

Hi.
According to the movement of men-and-women-are-created-equally-theory, a "chairman" has now become to be called as a "chairperson."

I know about that. And I think it is the matter of course to call him/her as a "chairperson" instead of a "chairman" now.

Yet, I'm still uneasy to call a fisherman as a "fisherperson".

Is it a quite natural thing for a native-English speaking person to say "fisherperson" now?

I've never heard of that term. I don't think it exists. Chairperson is a different story. Perhaps the term had to be changed because of what you said. And I also think it is a position of power, so it's also more "visible" in the corporate world and the need to change it is more obvious.

[Supperman]

Originally Posted by JohnBraden

I've never heard of that term. I don't think it exists. Chairperson is a different story. Perhaps the term had to be changed because of what you said. And I also think it is a position of power, so it's also more "visible" in the corporate world and the need to change it is more obvious.

Thanks again, JohnBraden.

At least, it exists in a dictionary;
“fisherperson”の検索結果（1 件）：英辞郎 on the WEB：スペースアルク

so, I created this thread.

[Supperman]

Hi.
I found something interesting.

I went to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco at my honey-moon, 15 years ago.

So I tried to google it, and lo-and-behold,

"Fisherman's Wharf" about 4,700,000 hits.
"Fisherperson's Wharf" about 86 hits.

So there must be someone who calls it as such in this world!

What do you think?

[JohnBraden]

Originally Posted by Supperman

Hi.
I found something interesting.

I went to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco at my honey-moon, 15 years ago.

So I tried to google it, and lo-and-behold,

"Fisherman's Wharf" about 4,700,000 hits.
"Fisherperson's Wharf" about 86 hits.

So there must be someone who calls it as such in this world!

What do you think?

I tried a few on-line dictionaries and fisherperson wasn't there. Google must be intelligent enough to pick up on those 86 error hits!

[RickOShay]

fisherperson sounds ridiculous to me. If it really needs to be changed it should just be changed to "fisher".

[Columbine]

I think compared to chairman which is more modern, there has historically always been a female equivalent of fisherman; fisherwoman; which is why fisherperson sounds more redundant.

[Supperman]

Thank you, RickOShay,
I've got your point.
It's a simple solution.

We can't say "chair" instead of "chairman, chairwoman, chairperson", because it is something else. Yet, we may say "fisher".

@Columbine
Thanks.
I agree with your point. Though I can't find "fisherwoman" in my dictionary, Google hits thousands of websites which has "fisherwoman" in it.

///////////////

According to your advice, if someone says "fisherperson" instead of "fisher" or "fisherwoman", I can feel his/her strong will that he/she is a feminist.
"I'm a feminist, feminist, feminist!! Women are not inferior to men, and at the same time, vice versa. "Fisherman" is unkind to women. "Fisherwoman" is unkind to men. Fisher" doesn't contain the connotation of me-being-a-feminist. So I dare to say "fisherperson" which has two connotation; one is sexually neutral, and another is "I'm always thinking about feminism!""

When I read some articles which have "Fisherperson's Wharf", I realized that those articles are referring to 1970's exaggerated feminism sarcastically.
And I'm very pleased to know that those attempts to change the name turned out to fail.
I personally think it is ridiculous to change the name.

[GinaS]

You can say chair (I prefer it to chairperson). "First we need to select a chair for the committee." No one will think you're picking out furniture.

For fishing, fisher or angler works. An angler only fishes with a rod and line though, so it has a connotation of someone who fishes for sport rather than as a job. If they're on a fishing boat, fishing crew or worker can be used. "She's a crew member on a fishing boat."

[Supperman]

Originally Posted by GinaS

You can say chair (I prefer it to chairperson). "First we need to select a chair for the committee." No one will think you're picking out furniture.

For fishing, fisher or angler works. An angler only fishes with a rod and line though, so it has a connotation of someone who fishes for sport rather than as a job. If they're on a fishing boat, fishing crew or worker can be used. "She's a crew member on a fishing boat."

Thank you, GinaS, for your explanations.

An 'angler' is a cool word to remember!