(ETH) – The publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary have just modified the definition of dozens of words in its latest book, including “woman” and “man.” in an effort to cater to LGBTQ inclusiveness.
The report states that the new definition for “woman” is now described as a “person’s” wife, girlfriend, or lover as opposed to only a man’s. “Woman” was previously defined in the dictionary as a “man’s” wife, girlfriend, or lover – but this has now been changed to “person’s”.
This comes as The Oxford Dictionary previously made changes to several definitions after a gender diversity review, according to the newspaper. The report states that a petition was presented that led to the changes of definitions being made to the dictionary as they were deemed “sexist” The petition gathered the signatures of over 30,000 people.
A “man” is now described by the dictionary as “a person’s husband, boyfriend or male lover”. A spokesman for the Oxford University Press, the dictionary’s publisher, told The Telegraph: “We have undertaken an extensive review of the dictionary and thesaurus entries, and usage examples, for ‘woman’ and for many related terms.”
“We have expanded the dictionary coverage of ‘woman’ with more examples and idiomatic phrases which depict women in a positive and active manner.” “We have ensured that offensive synonyms or senses are clearly labeled as such and only included where we have evidence of real-world usage.”
