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What is currently accepted as the proper title for a person from France? Is it still the gender-specific Frenchman/Frenchwoman, or is Frenchperson the new term?
(I use French as just an example, obviously. Same question for English folks)

Mari-Lou A
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Daniel
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  • I've personally stuck to using "French person" or "British person" etc. but I have no idea if there's any consensus on that. – pavja2 Jun 06 '14 at 05:41
  • possible duplicate of Is there a difference between "Frenchmen" and "French men"? – njboot Jun 06 '14 at 05:46
  • Ngram shows an increasing usage of 'French person', but 'Frenchman' is still more popular. –  Jun 06 '14 at 05:53
  • If French is only an example, are you looking for a generic suffix for people from any country. man/men does work with French and English but doesn't work with a lot of nationalities; German, Japan, American etc. It does work with China but I'm not sure if Chinaman/Chinamen is PC anymore. – Frank Jun 06 '14 at 06:27
  • If people are going to start promoting gender-specific designations for ethnicity or nationality, some obvious possibilities are Normen/Norwomen and Germen/Gerwomen. ;-) – Erik Kowal Jun 06 '14 at 06:34
  • @ErikKowal Nothing wrong with Norman (famous for their conquests), Norwoman seems less convincing. – Frank Jun 06 '14 at 06:48
  • "Rene" if you want to mimic cryptic cruciverbalists. – moonstar Jun 06 '14 at 06:58
  • Also related: What do you call a Swiss man? – choster Jun 06 '14 at 07:37
  • possible duplicate of What do you call a Swiss man? – choster Jun 06 '14 at 07:45
  • And this is exactly why using nicknames should be considered pragmatical, not pejorative. Frog, kiwi, limey are all gender-neutral, right? – oerkelens Jun 06 '14 at 07:57
  • It's frog isn't it? Haha only kidding but I was surprised to find frog described as "Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive". Could any Frenchies comment? I thought it was about as offensive as calling the English "les rosbifs" or "limeys". –  Jun 06 '14 at 08:12
  • @Frank The Normans were originally Viking raiders until the King of France granted Rollo lands around Rouen (Normandy) which his descendants (including William the Conq) continued to hold. So Normans are not synonymous with French at all. –  Jun 06 '14 at 08:21
  • @TheMathemagician As a Frenchperson https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Frenchperson%2CFrench+person%2C+Englishperson%2C+English+person&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CFrenchperson%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CFrench%20person%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CEnglishperson%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CEnglish%20person%3B%2Cc0, I don't find the terms "Frog," "Frogeater," "Froggie," and "Frank" particularly offensive or disparaging. :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_France – Elian Jun 06 '14 at 08:26
  • @TheMathemagician French, as the OP states, is just an example. Norman/Norseman – Frank Jun 06 '14 at 08:27
  • Let’s not forget Romen and Rowomen. This is sheer madness. – tchrist Jun 06 '14 at 12:41
  • @ErikKowal - German/Gerwoman still has man in it twice. Consider German/Gerbabe instead. – Oldcat Jun 06 '14 at 18:55

2 Answers2

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Frenchman is not gender specific:

1) a native or inhabitant of France

2) a person who is of French descent

However, Frenchman does not = "French man" or "French woman."

"A French person" constitutes the gender neutral form of these.

Use the accepted "Frenchman." To address someone as a "French person" sounds awkward and contrived in my opinion.

njboot
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It goes against the URL, but have you considered writing Les Français?

Michael Lorton
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