# Is a female magazine photographer a paparazzo or should the word end in -a? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089 "2017-07-12T14:38:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/21 "2017-07-14T01:50:11Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Although it’s odd that English speakers are so accepting of the Latin masculine second declension plural in -_i_ that they stick it on words that don’t even conjugate that way (“octopi,” “penii”). The Italian plural ending in -_i_ is the exact same thing directly descended from Latin, and yet somebody says “a paparazzo” in English and they get scolded prescriptively by descriptivists, 😉 **dtilque**. Go figure. Are people really not aware that Italian is the direct descendant of Latin and makes the same plurals? I will never scold someone for using the Italian singular or even say that it’s wrong. My point was that using the Italian plural as singular in English is the dominant form. As for Latin, the centuries of certain people insisting on using the Latin plurals in English established an additional plural rule in English: /əs/ -\> /ai/. And then those same people, or rather their intellectual descendents, become upset when this new rule is applied to all words that end with /əs/ such as the examples you gave (it’s even sometimes applied such words as _stewardess_). I wish they’d be more consistent. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/22 "2017-07-14T02:53:01Z")
Who knew that the people of Tatooine spoke a Latin-derived language? They have their sarlacc, the plural of which is sarlacci. I’ve always believed that “a long time ago in a galaxy far away” actually refers to a futuristic Milky Way galaxy, as seen from even farther in the future and from some other far-off galaxy. Why else would the plural of sarlacc be sarlacci, and why else would there be characters with names like Calrissian? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/23 "2017-07-14T09:06:33Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Give this man a biscotti! Is singular “biscotti” now the norm in English too? Dio mio. > [@](#): > > It’s funny how it’s pretty common for Americans to be overly interested in trying to make Latin nouns properly singular or plural, to the point of making ridiculous mistakes like using “peni” for the plural of “penis”, but virtually never try to reconcile the proper plural in Italian, when Italian is essentially the same language and the rule has the same origin. Indeed it is. Post #14 called. Doesn’t want anything back but just called to say great minds think alike. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/24 "2017-07-14T09:20:44Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > /…/ (Most targets of their photos use a term like a\*\*hole, which applies to both genders anyway.) Yes, but in Italy they say \*asshola \*if it is a female. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/25 "2017-07-14T11:24:54Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > actor or comedian can be of either gender (actress/comedienne are declining), Perhaps this is a job for Ngram. About 10 years ago I noticed a trend to change actress to actor, but lately it looked to me like it’s stalled or reversed and actress is coming back into use. Comedienne is pretty well extinct, but not actress. I have totally gotten into the habit, however of saying mail carrier exclusively. > [@](#): > > nobody refers to Betsy Price as the Mayoress of Fort Worth, TX, etc. I wouldn’t have thought mayoress was even a word, but surprise, the automatic spellchecker didn’t flag it, and it turns out dictionaries have it after all. It’s funny how non-gendered English has included that word all along, while gendered Italian is just now coming up with “sindaca.” But [note](https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/mairesse) “Une femme élue à la direction d’une administration municipale était en France habituellement appelée _Madame le Maire_, mais cet usage tend de plus en plus à évoluer vers _Madame la Maire_.” In France, a woman elected to run a municipal administration was customarily called _Madame le Maire_, but this usage is tending more and more to evolve into _Madame la Maire_. Perhaps languages are only now shuffling such gendered titles around now that women are mayors a lot oftener than formerly. While the [Spanish](https://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/mairesse) article on mairesse says the word is used in Québec and Switzerland. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/26 "2017-07-14T15:39:46Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I wouldn’t have thought mayoress was even a word, but surprise, the automatic spellchecker didn’t flag it, and it turns out dictionaries have it after all. It’s funny how non-gendered English has included that word all along, while gendered Italian is just now coming up with “sindaca.” Mayoress has existed for probably centuries, as the wife of a mayor. It’s still the first definition for mayoress in some dictionaries, with female mayor as the second definition. I doubt its peak use in the 1820s ([Google ngram of mayoress](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=mayoress&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmayoress%3B%2Cc0)) were references to female mayors. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/27 "2017-07-14T15:53:21Z")
Yes, and compare “governor” and “governess”. The same root just with masculine and feminine endings, but now have different meanings. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/28 "2017-07-14T16:19:45Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > Mayoress has existed for probably centuries, as the wife of a mayor. It’s still the first definition for mayoress in some dictionaries, with female mayor as the second definition. Some dictionaries (Merriam-Webster, for one) sort their definitions by age rather than commonness. So you can’t go by that to decide which meaning is currently in favor. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/29 "2017-07-14T16:55:12Z")
We have followed Italy down a dark ally, coshed it over the head and stole Paparazzi, so it’s now a American English word and thus it’s Paparazzi for any gender. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/30 "2017-07-14T17:49:57Z")
> [@Moris](#): > > I think paparazzo is just fine. An audience might shout “bravo” at the end of a performance but I don’t think anyone in English-speaking world will shout “brava” to a female performer. Actually, they do, though people who know the difference are typically only going to be found at opera or ballet performances. In fact, when a M/F duet-type performance ends people usually should _bravo_ followed by _brava_. ---
**Author:** ![CeleTheRef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@CeleTheRef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CeleTheRef)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/31 "2017-07-14T17:59:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Who knew that the people of Tatooine spoke a Latin-derived language? They have their sarlacc, the plural of which is sarlacci. > > I’ve always believed that “a long time ago in a galaxy far away” actually refers to a futuristic Milky Way galaxy, as seen from even farther in the future and from some other far-off galaxy. Why else would the plural of sarlacc be sarlacci, and why else would there be characters with names like Calrissian? Foreign nouns in Italian are usually invariable, so it’s “un sarlacc, due sarlacc” ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089/32 "2017-07-23T21:15:16Z")
Thank you all. Very helpful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-female-magazine-photographer-a-paparazzo-or-should-the-word-end-in-a/791089.md?page=1)