• ComicalMayhem@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I’ve seen some discussion around magister with the short form mage and the abbreviation mg. Allegedly both ms and mr come from the Latin root that magister comes from, so lexically it makes sense.

    I suppose just avoiding gender and professionalism altogether is better though. Instead of “Hello sir,” a polite “Good afternoon” could suffice. Instead of “Excuse me miss” just “Excuse me.”

    Or call everyone comrade.

    Edit: oh yeah, twin. There’s been a lot of people calling others twin.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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      4 months ago

      I’ve seen some discussion around magister with the short form mage and the abbreviation mg. Allegedly both ms and mr come from the Latin root that magister comes from, so lexically it makes sense.

      No one is going to start a professional email “Dear mage” and be taken seriously, no matter how linked the etymology.

      I suppose just avoiding gender and professionalism altogether is better though. Instead of “Hello sir,” a polite “Good afternoon” could suffice.

      “To whom it may concern…”

      • aliceitc@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        Well, unless you’re writing to an actual mage. As in a magician, wizard, sorcerer, witch, warlock or mystic.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        Only thing I can think of is ‘Honorable’ as what judges get as a formal title… its gender neutral, but waaaaaay too formal.

        ‘Esteemed’ is… yeah, similar, but also imo is so formal and rarely used seriously that it essentially comes across as camp, sarcastic.

        I would genuinely just suggest English borrow a gender neutral term from another language.

        That would be… on brand for English.

        Possibly we could bastardize a Japanese honorific / suffix?

        -san

        -sama

        -tono

        -ue

        ???

        Just fuck it up and put it in front of a name?

        … There are probably too many weaboos this would significantly anger…

        -tono in particular I find very funny, as it essentially literally is “m’they’dy” from another comment, in Japanese.

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 months ago

            I totally follow what you mean, but part of me wants to reiterate bastardize.

            The English language has certainly taken words from other languages and just… bent them totally beyond their original meaning/usage, to the point of breaking.

            But another part of me simultaneously cringes at just, doing that intentionally.

            sigh