Oxford University Press has updated its dictionaries’ definitions of the word “woman” following an extensive review triggered by equality campaigners.Among the updates to Oxford Dictionaries’ definitions is the acknowledgement that a woman can be “a person’s wife, girlfriend, or female lover”, rather than only a man’s.
The entry for “man” has also been amended to include the same gender-neutral terminology, while many other terms relating to sexual attractiveness and activity have been revised.Labels have been applied to terms identified as “derogatory”, “offensive” or “dated”, such as the word “bitch” and “bint”, which are listed as synonyms for the word woman.
The review was triggered following a petition last year criticising the dictionaries’ inclusion of bitch, bint, wench and other offensive remarks, among its list of synonyms for women.Campaigners argued that the examples the dictionaries offered for “man” were also much more exhaustive than those for “woman” and presented women as “subordinate or “an irritation”.
