What's a non-gender-specific synonym for "human"?

[johnnie]

Hu=person? :shrug:

[Cush]

1. earthling

[gordianot]

2. Homo Sapiens (Latin) but I doubt the wisdom (pun).

[MrMonk]

12. "Homo sap - the ape that walks like a chicken."

That's from something or other.

[XNASA]

3. hominid

:shrug:

[ogradda]

4. just person.

or people i would think.

[Xipe Totec]

5. person is not gender specific.

son is male. How about huperchild?

[johnnie]

9. Oh crap

I missed the "son" part.

[obreaslan]

6. Mankind...

Oh wait...:crazy:

[Robroy]

7. Featherless Bi-Ped

n/t

[BrainRants]

8. Does "Homo Sapiens" count?

or is homo a gender term?

(not meant as an insulting question, only seeking context)

My apologies in advance if it offends.

[imenja]

10. I say don't worry about it

Butchering the English language isn't going to suddenly bring about gender equality. Human is a perfectly good word. Go ahead and use it.
The point is to be precise in one's use of language. When writing about deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, one should say men and women because it is accurate. There are cases, however, where that is not descriptive. In graduate school, I knew a Native American student who was asked to look over a high school textbook, because the publisher imagined they were making it more inclusive. They had simply substituted person for male nouns throughout the book: cowboy became cowperson, and other meaningless changes. They had not bothered to rewrite the book to incorporate developments in social history and women's history in particular.
The point I'm emphasizing here is that focusing on language alone is meaningless and can actually obfuscate social inequality.

[baba]

22. Language is important.

You have some good points. But I think that language is much more powerful than we might think. By using inclusive language we are having an effect on social inequality.

One thing that drives me nuts: when people use the word "girl" to refer to a woman over the age of 18. I think it is fine as long as you are using it in an informal way, and you are talking about adult men as "boys." But how many times have I heard people use "men" and "girls" to refer to adults of similar age in the same conversation? It infuriates me!

[imenja]

25. Oh I'm with you there!

I despise it when people use the term "girl." Language is important, but it's not a substitute for changes in policy or analysis. I think we in this country have a tendency to concentrate on language to the exclusion of substance. My first recollection of this was as a teenager, when James Watt resigned as Interior secretary over his racist joke. His comments were horrible, but the Reagan administration was able to implement racist and environmentally rapacious policies without reproach. That was even worse than Watt's comments about the coal commission.

[jdots]

11. DU should make up a good name

the wingnuts make up words and change them all the time.

[Eyeball Kid]

13. Ugly sacks of mostly water.

Hairless ape.

Meatbag.

[Xithras]

14. We need to reassert the original meaning of "man"

Man is from the old German word Mann, which simply meant "human".

[skooooo]

16. ummm Mann also means husband...

I don't think there's an easy way around this...

[Xithras]

18. No, not originally.

When Mann came into English, there were three words used to desribe people. Mann was the equivalent of Human, Wer was the equivalent of Male Human, and Wif was the equivalent of female human. Up until very recently, Man was the general reference word for all of humanity. We need to push that meaning back out, rather than rework the rest of the language to avoid it.

Wer is completly dead to the language, so it can't be brought back, but "male", "guy" or any number of other words could suffice. (Wif, the old english word for female, survives today in the word Wife).

[Inland]

20. "Wer" not completely dead, but its use in "werewolf" not helpful, either

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. Ape.

[Maple]

17. Terran

Something we'll no doubt use a lot in the near future. :D

[Fenris]

19. Humyn.

[everythingsxen]

21. Tellurian

:evilgrin:

[Deja Q]

23. Tellurian, humanoid, critter, cretin, junk monkey, animals with money...

quite a few, and many of which need not be extracted from the 5th volume of "The Sci-Fi Encyclopedia". :D :D

[Khephra]

24. I like Leary and RAW's term -- Domesticated Primates

[Solly Mack]

26. earth lice