America is a dysfunctional, retrograde theocracy that will soon be
eclipsed by China and then India.  It has already been overtaken
by the EU in metrics such as life expectancy, equality and the
"pursuit of happiness".

A page from Justin's playbook: Peoplekind and more!

It certainly sounds like a (bad) pun - precisely why I mentioned it reads like a Babylon Bee headline, haha.

It certainly sounds like a (bad) pun - precisely why I mentioned it reads like a Babylon Bee headline, haha.

please do not use the word "mention". it is sexist

A page from Justin's playbook: Peoplekind and more!

I get that this is humour, but the argument for "peoplekind" does actually have some merit.

Etymologically, "mankind" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "mann" (person) and 'cynd" (kin/sort/kind). "Mann" was actually a gender neutral term back in the day (the male human had the prefix "wæpen", which refers to exactly what is sounds like it refers to  , while the female human had the prefix "wif" whose meaning is also pretty obvious).

Linguistic drift has done away with wæpenmann, leaving mann as the only word for male-person. However, mankind, which was also present in Anglo-saxon, did not catch the (linguistic) drift, and was left behind in a kind of semantic backwater. Updating the term to "personkind" would be consistent with the etymological changes to "man".

 

I get that this is humour, but the argument for "peoplekind" does actually have some merit.

Etymologically, "mankind" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "mann" (person) and 'cynd" (kin/sort/kind). "Mann" was actually a gender neutral term back in the day (the male human had the prefix "wæpen", which refers to exactly what is sounds like it refers to  , while the female human had the prefix "wif" whose meaning is also pretty obvious).

Linguistic drift has done away with wæpenmann, leaving mann as the only word for male-person. However, mankind, which was also present in Anglo-saxon, did not catch the (linguistic) drift, and was left behind in a kind of semantic backwater. Updating the term to "personkind" would be consistent with the etymological changes to "man".

 

Did you know "girl" used to mean just "child".  A knave-girl was  a male child, a female child was a gay-girl.

Boy meant churl or servant.

Old man misfires with cringeworthy pun.

This is big news.

Did you know "girl" used to mean just "child".  A knave-girl was  a male child, a female child was a gay-girl.

Boy meant churl or servant.

I thought that origin of "gay" was the Germanic "gai" which meant "joyfull / carefree"? As for the rest, no I didn't. Pretty cool!
I like etymology. And entomology too, for that matter. It doesn't ...bug... me when people mix up their... meanings. 

I call complete BS on that!.

Well, I haven't been here too long, so I'm open to the possibility that there's plenty worse I haven't seen

Well, he wasn't "joking" and he didn't say it was a joke, so you've got that wrong.   He said it was a lighthearted pun, which is not the same as "joke".  Perhaps you've got other parts of it wrong, too. 

Perhaps, but considering it comes on the back of Pelosi's stated goal to make gender neutral terms the standard, I'd say at best it was a big backfire.  That's just stoking the flames and poking a bear.  You know it's the kind of comment that is going to rile people.  But, for me, watching the video and his deliver,y and holding politicians of all stripes in low regards when it comes to forthrightness, I'm not buying the pun explanation.