• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      5 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.comEnglish
          2·
          5 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