Hand-set lists · 8 collections
Gender term collections
A category has a rule; a collection has an argument. These 8 sets are cut by hand across the 11 categories: the words with a known author and a dated first use, the categories that resist being translated into English at all, the umbrellas that have quietly absorbed the terms beneath them, and the sets that only make sense once somebody has said out loud what they are for.
- The Pairs People Mix UpFour pairs of gender terms that get mixed up constantly, and what each pair actually turns on: the body, the axis, the register, or a plain category error.
- Categories That Resist TranslationSeven gender categories routinely given as the local word for transgender, and the specific reason each of those renderings fails.
- The Vocabulary of the 1990sSeven words first attested between 1992 and 1996, made in zines and newsletters before the general internet, carrying most of the framework still in use.
- The Numbers That Get MisquotedSix figures quoted constantly without the sentence that makes them mean anything, including one that fell sixfold because a checkbox was removed.
- Where the Law Drew a LineSix gender categories with a date, a jurisdiction and a document behind them, from a criminal tribe in 1871 to a third gender in 2014.
- Words That Changed MeaningSix terms whose current sense is not their first, with both senses dated. A dictionary gives where a word ended up; this gives the distance travelled.
- MVPFAFF: The Pacific Names ItselfSeven Pacific gender categories grouped under an acronym their own communities coined, and the differences the grouping deliberately does not hide.
- Words With a Known AuthorFour gender terms whose coinage has a person, a date and a place attached, and why almost nothing else in the vocabulary does.
Common questions
Questions about grouping gender terms
What a collection is, what separates it from a category, and what the sets deliberately leave out.
What is the difference between a category and a collection?
A category has a rule and a collection has an argument. Every entry files under exactly one of the 11 categories, decided by what the term names, and the category prints the rule for what belongs in it. A collection is set by hand, cuts across those categories, and exists because somebody had something to say that a filing rule cannot say.
Why group gender terms by where the word came from?
Because origin is the field every other glossary leaves out and the one that answers the most questions. A term coined in scholarship, a term that circulated in a community for decades before anybody wrote it down, and a term traceable to a dated post are three different kinds of evidence, and a reader deciding how much weight to put on a word wants to know which one they are holding. The field is descriptive and never a ranking: recency is not a verdict on anybody.
Why do some collections hold terms from one culture only?
Because a set that mixed them would be making the mistake it exists to correct. A culture-specific category is not a regional variant of an English word: it belongs to a particular people, has its own name in its own language, and often does not map onto the English categories at all. Grouping several of them together lets each entry say what does not translate, which is the most interesting sentence on most of those pages and the one a listicle always drops.
Can the same term appear in more than one collection?
Yes, and several do. A term can sit in one set because it has a named author and a dated first use, and in another because the umbrella above it has quietly absorbed it. The two sets make different arguments about the same entry, and the note attached to it says which argument it is there for. A category is exclusive; a collection is not.
Do the collections cover the whole catalogue?
No, and they are not meant to. 18 of the 82 entries appear in a set. A collection is deliberately incomplete and says what it leaves out, because a set that swept in every eligible entry would be a filter with a title on it. The complete list lives in the A–Z index and in browse.