genderless noun, ideal
In fact, the ideal genderless noun contains … drum roll … man!
The etymology from Olde English for a male and female is
werman for a male, and
wifman for a female. Look it up if you don’t believe that. The
wer , or sometimes
wir, means male and is still used in words like
werwolf (or werewolf as it now spelt) which literally meant
manwolf. As for
wif, that means woman and so
wifman is a woman person. So the word
man actually means
person which is why we still have gender neutral terms such as
human,
mankind or gendered terms like
woman - all with the word
man in them!
Link to one of hundreds of articles on the subject:
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/wer...man-and-woman/
So a person who is working in the air environment is … drum roll … an Airman!
Now I maybe Aircrew, that some would correctly call an Aviator, but that is because I am male. If I was female, or identified as one, then I would be an Aviatrix - as per one of our most famous Aviatrixes of them all, Ms Amy Johnson.
Aviatrix ? Amy Johnson Arts Trust
Women have had a tough enough time over some of the gender politics recently, surely we’re not about to cancel out the word Aviatrix that belongs to the brave female Pilots and Navigators over the past 100 years or so. Bonkers…