# People from \_\_\_\_\_: Noun vs. Adjective **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 8, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455 "2010-06-08T17:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/41 "2010-06-12T02:17:00Z")
> [@Generic\_Userid](#): > > I don’t believe there is any appropriate English-language alternative to “Englishman” or “Frenchman” regardless of the subject’s gender. I would have expected a language traditionalist to suggest that in general contexts, “Englishman” _is_ gender-neutral, as is “man.” I see “hung” used incorrectly in place of “hanged” more often than the reverse. “Lighted” and “lit” have apparently been treated as interchangeable for at least a hundred years now, but that’s a case where there would be a use for distinct terms, if we could agree on which is which–one word for the activation of the light-producing reaction of a lamp, the other for the effect of the active lamp on the area around it. ---
**Author:** ![Generic\_Userid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9fc29f/32.png) [@Generic\_Userid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Generic_Userid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/42 "2010-06-12T04:06:55Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I would have expected a language traditionalist to suggest that in general contexts, “Englishman” _is_ gender-neutral, as is “man.” > > I see “hung” used incorrectly in place of “hanged” more often than the reverse. > > “Lighted” and “lit” have apparently been treated as interchangeable for at least a hundred years now, but that’s a case where there would be a use for distinct terms, if we could agree on which is which–one word for the activation of the light-producing reaction of a lamp, the other for the effect of the active lamp on the area around it. I’m a stickler for rules as long as they’re the rules I’m comfortable with 😉 … but seriously I didn’t follow through on the traditional gender neutral usage of “man” in English idiom, and I thank you for pointing that out 🙂 But in my memory (currently going into it’s 5th decade) we learned “hung” and not “hanged” for all past tense versions of “to hang” regardless of what is actually being hung. It don’t not matter none to me whether 'tis a man or a picture is hanging, they’re all hung in the end. Similar for “lit” … when I learned English, there was no such word as “lighted” (i.e., it was not in my school’s grammar books) … “lit” was the only past tense form of the verb “to light”. A street lamp lit the street. I lit the candle. Regarding ‘pled’ as well as them other irregular verbs I used as examples, the majority of the websites I visited on the subject of irregular verbs agreed with my examples or at least considered them as “equal” to the more modern “[verb]ed” version. In my opinion, an irregular verb should not be turned ‘regular’ just because a retard working at the Associated Press can’t remember how to conjugate grade-school English. Here’s a couple links that I cherry-picked specifically to support my position 😃 : > **[English Irregular Verb List](http://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html)** > > List of all English irregular verbs with flashcards, drills, and printable PDF to help you learn the forms. [http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/verbs.htm](http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/verbs.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/43 "2010-06-12T20:55:19Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > When in Barbados I was told by one local that the correct term for the people there was Barbadians, but another local angrily disagreed, saying Bajan was correct. They glared at each other, I ordered a round of Presidente Beers and things settled down. Mostly people there call themselves Bajans, but Barbadians is not wrong. Buy do try Banks beer. Here are some obscure ones: People from Aix-en-Provence are called Aquisextains. “Aix” is a corruption of the Latin word for six waters. People from Trois Rivières (up the St. Lawrence from Montreal) are called Trifluviens. (But what are people from Trois Pistoles called?) And people from Halifax, at the least the one in Nova Scotia, are called Haligonians. This makes me want to say that there are five kinds of Haligonians, the extremely active Fluoronians, the somewhat more stable Chloronians, the fluid Bromonians, the very solid Iodonians, and the radioactive Astatonians. ---
**Author:** ![PsyXe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PsyXe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyXe)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/44 "2010-06-14T19:57:37Z")
I hope this thread isn’t too old yet to reply to… > [@ctnguy](#): > > Only down here at the Cape. 😉 (Or are you hated in Durban as well? :p) Technically I suppose you should be called “Gautengers”. > > There’s the slightly odd-sounding (although presumably grammatically correct) construction “Capetonians” for people from Cape Town. Yes, we’re hated in Durban too - or should I say especially: after all, it’s a shorter drive down to Durban and thus the beaches are more populated by us 😃 Though in my defence, I was born in Cape Town to parents who came from Maritzburg. Which would make them… Pietermaritzburghers? I’m surprised no one has mentioned the old “ich bin ein berliner” story. And are citizens of Hamburg Hamburgers? **Hari Seldon** : _claps_ ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/45 "2010-06-15T02:26:48Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > My (Australian) wife says that people from Sydney are called Sydneysiders. Not quite sure if she’s yanking my chain or not 🙂 She isn’t. Apparently, it’s not meant to be offensive when I get called a Yank or a Bloody Seppo, and if I disagree I’m a wanker. Whatever. ETA: Yank has ceased to bother me, mostly because if I let it I’ll never get over being angry again. Being told I sound like Kristina Keneally, though, made me tell the guy to fuck right off. Hate her, she’s corrupt and the puppet of the assholes in the NSW parliament. Gah. > **[Kristina Keneally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristina_Keneally)** > > Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who served as the first female Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011 and was later a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 until April 2022. She resigned from the Senate to contest the House of Representatives seat of Fowler, but was unsuccessful. From 2019 to 2022 she served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, and Shadow Mi Ke... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455.md?page=2)