chairperson

chairperson
chairpersonship, n.
/chair"perr'seuhn/, n.
1. a person who presides over a meeting, committee, board, etc.
2. the administrative head of a department in a high school, college, or university.
[1970-75; CHAIR(MAN) + -PERSON]
Usage. CHAIRPERSON has, since the 1960s, come to be used widely as an alternative to either CHAIRMAN or CHAIRWOMAN. This change has sprung largely from a desire to avoid CHAIRMAN, which is felt by many to be inappropriate and even sexually discriminatory when applied to a woman. In some organizations, notably academic and, to a lesser extent, governmental, CHAIRPERSON has been adopted as the official term for anyone who fills the position in question. Some publishers and publications specify the use of CHAIRPERSON in their style guides.
Despite such widespread acceptance, some newspapers, press associations, and other news media do not use CHAIRPERSON at all, usually on the grounds that it is awkward and that CHAIRMAN is a well-established generic term covering both sexes. Some publications and organizations use the term CHAIR to designate the presiding officer, thus avoiding charges of both sexism and awkwardness: Jim will be chair of the entertainment committee this year, and Jane will be chair next year. CHAIRPERSON is standard in all varieties of speech and writing. See also -man, -person, -woman.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • chairperson — chair‧per‧son [ˈtʆeəˌpɜːsn ǁ ˈtʆerˌpɜːrsn] noun chairpersons PLURALFORM or chairpeople [ ˌpiːpl] [countable] COMMERCE someone who is in charge of a meeting or who directs the work of a committee or o …   Financial and business terms

  • chairperson — n. the officer who presides at the meetings of an organization; same as {chair[3]} or {chairman[1]}, but used to achieve a sex neutral register. Syn: president, chairman, chairwoman, chair. [WordNet 1.5 +PJC] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • chairperson — index chief Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • chairperson — (n.) 1971, from CHAIR (Cf. chair) (n.) + PERSON (Cf. person) …   Etymology dictionary

  • chairperson — [n] person in charge of proceedings administrator, captain, chair, director, introducer, leader, moderator, monitor, president, presider, principal, prolocutor, speaker, spokesperson, symposiarch; concepts 348,376 …   New thesaurus

  • chairperson — ► NOUN ▪ a chairman or chairwoman …   English terms dictionary

  • chairperson — [cher′pʉr΄sən] n. CHAIRMAN (n. 1): used to avoid the masculine implication of chairman …   English World dictionary

  • chairperson — chairman, chairwoman, chairperson, chair The term chairman, which combines connotations of power with grammatical gender bias, has been a keyword in feminist sensitivities about language. Chairwoman dates from the 17c, but (as the OED notes) it… …   Modern English usage

  • Chairperson — Der Begriff Chairperson wird verwendet: allgemein als emanzipierte Form des Begriffs Chairman im Zusammenhang mit der Themenzentrierten Interaktion von Ruth Cohn, siehe Chairperson (TZI) Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unte …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • chairperson — [[t]tʃe͟ə(r)pɜː(r)s(ə)n[/t]] chairpersons N COUNT The chairperson of a meeting, committee, or organization is the person in charge of it. She s the chairperson of the safety committee …   English dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”