Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  Gloom = a state of partial or total darkness.

ak>  Well... So an Englishman can see in the gloom 
ak>  and can not see in the gloom.  ;-)

     
          I see you got the idea.  Good....  :-)

          I added the correction just before posting my reply, then began to wonder if I should have said simply "-man", "-men".  This pattern is akin to what dictionaries use, builds on what you & others here already know, and is easier to read.  OTOH I wouldn't want anyone to read too much into it.

          Man, men.  Woman, women.  The same applies to "Englishman" & other words you've probably encountered before.  But times change, and where folks like me grew up hearing of policemen & policewomen many such terms have been replaced by gender-neutral terms... WRT this example, "police officer".  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+