this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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[–] tuckerm@feddit.online 28 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It's so weird how they flip both of those words around. Like, they'll say "females" instead of women, but then, they'll say "a woman doctor."

[–] Horsecook@sh.itjust.works 9 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

Woman doctor is much older, and makes grammatical sense under the assumption that doctor is an exclusively male title. Female doctor implies that male and female are both ordinary categories of doctors.

Edit: while “females” is a reference to the Ferengi in Star Trek DS9.

[–] Quokka@quokk.au 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

That’s such an American take.

Here in Australia female doctor makes grammatical sense, and woman doctor sounds ridiculous. Woman doctor would have the same assumption as it also has an opposite in man doctor, which sounds equally as ridiculous unlike male doctor.

Now you could say my doctor is a woman and that makes perfect sense whereas my doctor is a female is ferengi.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 5 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Woman doctor and nan doctor are just gynecologist and andrologist

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Isn't a "nan doctor" a grandgynocologist?

Or a gerontologist.

[–] Test_Tickles@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

But only if you look around and then covertly gesture at your genitals while saying it.

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I think it would be “Doctrix” in older versions of English.

[–] Horsecook@sh.itjust.works 7 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

The -trix suffix was dead long before there were many female doctors, only surviving in dominatrix.

When my grandparents died, my mother kept referring to herself as the executrix while handling the estate. People would visibly cringe every time she did, until I got her to stop.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Executrix is still common when dealing with estates tho?

[–] Horsecook@sh.itjust.works 3 points 14 hours ago

Perhaps it varies regionally, but even the lawyer cringed, and didn’t use it himself.

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 3 points 14 hours ago

Yeah, I only discovered the word when I read “doctoress” in a translation I was proofing and knew there was something going on there.