Phrases flushed away in tide of neutralised nouns

FRESH – Trinity College Dublin is dropping the term Freshman (used for new students), replacing it with ‘fresh’, despite the fact the neutral ‘freshers’ has been in use for decades. FISHER – Ex-finance minister Michael Noonan told the Dáil he understood it is now not politically correct to use the term fishermen, and that fisher is now the accepted term. Not so new though, as in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, Jesus uses the word telling his disciples: ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ NON-BINARY – Refers to any gender not exclusively male or female. Agender – also called genderless, genderfree, nongendered, or ungendered – is a person who identifies as having no gender.

HUMANKIND – While mankind was accepted to both men and women, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau recently interrupted a woman to suggest the more PC phrase is ‘humankind’ – to widespread ridicule.

GENDERED TITLES – A whole host of terms are now gender neutral – postman (postal worker), stewardess (flight attendant), fireman (firefighter), waiter (server) and chairman (chair/chairperson).

GIRL GUIDES - The Irish Girl Guides have amended their equality policy guidelines to include the fact that ‘anyone who lives their lives as female is welcome to join’.