# What is a "Congressman?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2008, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326 "2008-03-22T09:56:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/21 "2008-03-23T00:00:25Z")
I’ll take your word for that. 😃 And pilots certainly are still called aviators, though not in as many contexts as before. No Navy man with wings would claim to be a mere “pilot”, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/22 "2008-03-23T00:15:47Z")
[QUOTE=Neptunian Slug] It’s a member of the House of Representatives. I am not sure how this form of address originated but its as good as “Representative X”. Yes Senators and Representatives are all “members of the Congress” and therefore “Congressmen” or “Congresswomen”. You just wouldn’t call a Senator “Congressman” unless you want to be rebuked by some junior aide or the Senator. With a couple of them, you might get a punch in the nose. [/QUOTE] The Senate is considered the upper house, so to call a Senator “Congressman” or “Congresswoman”, while technically correct, would be failing to show due respect. It’d probably be similar to calling a university professor “Mr.” in a context where it would be proper to call them “Dr.” or “Professor”. Not that we care about those class distinctions here. 🙂 It’s been said that the House of Representatives is like a hot cup of coffee, and the Senate is like the saucer, in the sense that the “hotter”, more biased ideas that come up in the House get cooled off, as it were, by the moderating influence of the Senate. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/23 "2008-03-23T15:24:49Z")
[QUOTE=Northern Piper] Similarly, in the U.K. and in Canada, a member of the House of Commons is always referred to as a Member of Parliament, or M.P. Technically, members of the House of Lords (in the U.K.) or of the Senate (in Canada) are also members of Parliament, but the term M.P. is used pretty much exclusively for members of the Commons. [/QUOTE] Technically, I guess “Member of Parliament” would be correct even for the Queen, since Parliament in the sense of the U.K. constitution includes the Crown, the Commons, and the Lords. [QUOTE=silenus] “Congressman” also gets around the confusion that might arise as to whether the critter in question was a member of the US Congress or some state legislature. Several states have a “House of Representatives.” [/QUOTE] Yes, but many states also have senates, so you have the same confusion with Senators. It even seems that in those states with unicameral legislatures (which are often not even technically called “senate”), the members of the legislature are addressed as “Senators.” Thanks everybody for your input, this settled a question that comes up occassionally when reading interviews with or reports about American politicians. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/24 "2008-03-23T15:37:49Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Note the part about “from Latin.” 🙂 Pedants, snobs, and general troublemakers keep trying to turn English into Latin. It doesn’t stick. [/QUOTE] I believe you mean “pedanti” and “snobulae”. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/25 "2008-03-23T15:52:30Z")
[QUOTE=Schnitte] … Yes, but many states also have senates, so you have the same confusion with Senators. It even seems that in those states with unicameral legislatures (which are often not even technically called “senate”), the members of the legislature are addressed as “Senators.” [/QUOTE] Currently, Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature, so “often” qualifiers aren’t really required. While the Nebraska body calls itself the “Nebraska Unicameral Legislature” on its site, the “votesmart” project refers to it as the “Senate”, probably on the grounds that its members are called “senators”. In fact, it appears, by quick perusal of the wiki list, that one of the houses of all of the other state legislatures is called the “senate”. The other house may be called a “house of representatives”, “assembly”, “general assembly”, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/26 "2008-03-23T16:15:29Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Ain’t so in English, you heathen furriner. [/QUOTE] How about Senatress, then? 🙂 > [@](#): > > If you want to eliminate all remnants of what we still use from Latin forms, I suppose you don’t like octopi? 😃 Perhaps the smiley indicates you already know this, but octopi is incorrect Latin. The correct Latin plural of octopus is octopodes. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/27 "2008-03-23T16:28:37Z")
With apologies to P.J. O’Rourke 's book, _Parliament of Whores_, it’s better than being called Member of the HoRs ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/28 "2008-03-23T17:57:18Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] I believe you mean “pedanti” and “snobulae”. [/QUOTE] Who are nevertheless entirely cromulent. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/29 "2008-03-23T18:04:31Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] Not in English, but in French we have _madame la sénatrice L’Hervieux-Payette_. [/QUOTE] God that makes me hot! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/30 "2008-03-23T23:09:23Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] France and Quebec have taken opposite approachs to this problem. In France women are simple refered to with the masculine form (madam le president) [/QUOTE] It used to be the case, but not anymore. Almost all (if not all) titles have been feminized, except military ranks, 10-15 years ago. Even though an average joe, could still say “Madame LE president” or “Madame LE procureur”, in an official context or, generally, in the medias, “Madame LA presidentE” or “Madame LA procureurE” will be used instead. Note that there has been a ruckus about this issue at first (including amongst the women holding such titles), but it seems mostly everybody have come to accept it now. As a result, the same thing happened with other occupations like in “l’auteurE de ce livre”, though in these cases it wasn’t officially sanctionned, of course. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/31 "2008-03-23T23:17:40Z")
By the way, googling a little, I noticed that Canadians apparently picked up “SenateurE” (as opposed to the french senatRICE). Am I right? ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/32 "2008-03-24T05:22:15Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur] By the way, googling a little, I noticed that Canadians apparently picked up “SenateurE” (as opposed to the french senatRICE). Am I right? [/QUOTE] I’m not aware of this, I always hear (and say) “sénatrice”. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/33 "2008-03-24T05:32:58Z")
Oh, and **clairobscur** : it’s interesting that you say that most titles are now being feminized in France. Just a few days ago I was rereading the Asterix album _La Rose et le glaive_, in which the feminist bard Maestria insists on being called “LE barde” and not “la bardesse” or “la barde”, as suggested by the chief Abraracourcix. To me this was a prime example of a difference between France French and Quebec French. Are you telling me that today she’d probably go for one of the feminized titles? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/34 "2008-03-24T05:37:08Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] Very little of it is good old Anglo-Saxon. [/QUOTE] I believe what those remaining words lack in number, they more than compensate in, um, colorfulness. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/35 "2008-03-24T15:09:19Z")
Doctrix? Realtrix? Sail… um… that one doesn’t really work. No wonder they kept women off ships. The job titles didn’t work out. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/36 "2008-03-24T15:52:48Z")
[QUOTE=Hypnagogic Jerk] Oh, and **clairobscur** : it’s interesting that you say that most titles are now being feminized in France. Just a few days ago I was rereading the Asterix album _La Rose et le glaive_, in which the feminist bard Maestria insists on being called “LE barde” and not “la bardesse” or “la barde”, as suggested by the chief Abraracourcix. To me this was a prime example of a difference between France French and Quebec French. Are you telling me that today she’d probably go for one of the feminized titles? [/QUOTE] No offense to Uderzo, but he’s really not up to date. Older Asterix albums contained a lot of social satire that was appropriate for the time. But Uderzo isn’t by far as good a scenarist as Goscinny was, and he doesn’t seem, either, to be able to catch and convey this sort of things. Apart from that, yes… today a woman is more likely to prefer the feminized version, IMO. And people have come to be accustomed to them, so at some point in the (probably near) future, young women will just find weird to see in old books those masculine titles being used by females. I’m sorry to deprive you from one of your prefered examples. I hope you’ll manage to find another one to show the differences between France and Quebec. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/37 "2008-03-24T16:01:37Z")
[QUOTE=Hypnagogic Jerk] I’m not aware of this, I always hear (and say) “sénatrice”. [/QUOTE] As far as I can tell, some people use the word “sénateure” (a Google search turns up some examples on parl.gc.ca, about one-fifth as many as “sénatrice”) but the official word is “sénatrice” (“sénateure” is not found in the OQLF’s dictionary nor that of the Canadian government’s translation bureau). This falls into the pattern in which the -eure ending is used very sparsely, with -euse or -trice used whenever possible, as being more authentic. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/38 "2008-03-25T03:38:25Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur] No offense to Uderzo, but he’s really not up to date. Older Asterix albums contained a lot of social satire that was appropriate for the time. But Uderzo isn’t by far as good a scenarist as Goscinny was, and he doesn’t seem, either, to be able to catch and convey this sort of things. [/quote] Agreed. I haven’t even read _Le Ciel lui tombe sur la tête_ yet, it looks pretty dreadful. Still, a few Uderzo-written albums aren’t bad. > [@](#): > > I’m sorry to deprive you from one of your prefered examples. I hope you’ll manage to find another one to show the differences between France and Quebec. Er, what? Maybe I didn’t express myself correctly, but I don’t really care; my only interest in this is my interest for linguistics. I had heard that France French didn’t use the feminine version of titles very much, and this scene from Asterix seemed to be a prime example of this fact; turns out it is not the case. (This said, I wonder where the idea comes from; **alphaboi867** also seemed to entertain it.) But it doesn’t matter to me. There are plenty of interesting differences between France French and Quebec French anyway. [QUOTE=matt\_mcl] As far as I can tell, some people use the word “sénateure” (a Google search turns up some examples on parl.gc.ca, about one-fifth as many as “sénatrice”) but the official word is “sénatrice” (“sénateure” is not found in the OQLF’s dictionary nor that of the Canadian government’s translation bureau). [/quote] Given this, I think we may safely call “sénateure” an incorrect usage. Personally, I don’t remember ever hearing it. > [@](#): > > This falls into the pattern in which the -eure ending is used very sparsely, with -euse or -trice used whenever possible, as being more authentic. “Sénateuse”? :eek: 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326/39 "2008-03-25T03:45:31Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur] I’m sorry to deprive you from one of your prefered examples. I hope you’ll manage to find another one to show the differences between France and Quebec. [/quote] [QUOTE=Hypnagogic Jerk] Er, what? Maybe I didn’t express myself correctly, but I don’t really care; my only interest in this is my interest for linguistics. [/QUOTE] I wondered if **clairobscur’s** reply might reflect that famous Parisian disdain for non-standard usage (I’ve read about elsewhere on this board). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-congressman/442326.md?page=1)