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From: phoogenb@liberty.uc.wlu.edu (Peter Hoogenboom)
Subject: Re: Cattle: Was H2O is water, water is H2O
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Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 22:02:56 GMT
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Greg Zywicki (gzywicki@cmsa.gmr.com) wrote:
: In article <4j7bvp$681@netsrv2.spss.com>,
:    markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) wrote:
: >There is a gender-neutral term: peafowl.  Really.
: Just no gender neutral singular term, just like cattle.

According to my dictionary, "fowl" can be singular.  In other words, if 
there is an individual animal in the yard, it would be correct to say 
"look at that peafowl over there in the yard" if the animal were a 
peacock or a peahen.  If the animal were a cow or a bull, however, one 
would be hard pressed to find a word which would fill this role.

Peter

-- 
Peter Hoogenboom                        phoogenb@wlu.edu
Department of Music, DuPont 208         hoogenboom.p@fs.sciences.wlu.edu
Washington and Lee University           phoogenboom@wesleyan.edu
Lexington, VA 24450                     (540) 463-8697
