14 June 2016 - woman and man

Use of the word “woman” doubled during the 19th century as the Industrial Revolution brought zeroth-wave feminism, then wobbled back before recovering. “Man” was steady through the 19th century, then fell by half over the 20th as what historians carelessly call first- and second-wave feminism cut into its status and its range of meaning. Today there are only two “man” for each “woman”, not eight or ten, and the verbal population is in danger of unprecedented realism. If trends continue for another century, then anything could happen.