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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/23/2009
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Location: Bangalore
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Could you please explain how the word 'spokesperson' is coined?
A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.
-Francis Bacon
Ravindra
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Ravindra wrote:Could you please explain how the word 'spokesperson' is coined?
The word 'spokesperson' means 'a person who speaks for a group'. It is a gender-neutral expression of the much older word 'spokesman'. The actual coinage of the term is too old to establish, but according to the Online Etymological Dictionary it was first written in the Quote:1510s, "an interpreter," 1530s in the sense of "person who speaks for another or others." Irregular formation from spoke, past tense of speak (actually a back-formation from spoken). (retrieved from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=spokesman)
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/23/2009
Posts: 307
Points: 921
Location: Bangalore
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Thank you LeonAzul. Though I had visited the site you referred to, I cared not to comprehend the word 'back-formation'. Now I have.
Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.
Ravindra
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Ravindra, I like the quote you posted. Thank you for posting it.
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