Loves women

Yes, "philogynist" is the word you need. Of related interest is the counterpart of the misogynist--the misandrist, a hater of men.

"Satyr" is an old word, one similar in origin, I believe, to nymphomaniac. I suspect, though, that the meaning is more sexual than was asked for in the question.

On 10/23/99 2:07:23 PM, Birgit Houston wrote:
>"Satyr" is an old word, one
>similar in origin, I believe,
>to nymphomaniac. I suspect,
>though, that the meaning is
>more sexual than was asked for
>in the question.

The question was debated to exhaustion on the HUMANIST list some years ago. The consensus was "misandrist," but nobody really liked it.

Just thought I'd take the opportunity to post a few terms from the world of anthropology (and my own personal world).

A lot of these terms are from a Greek root. "Anthropos" is "man," but used when referring to humanity, or mankind. I'm not entirely certain about these two, but I believe the root for male and female are "andros" and "gynos," respectively. Thus, while polygamy is a general term for marriages with more than one member of a certain gender, it is more appropriately "polygyny" if there are multiple wives and "polyandry" if there are multiple husbands. Too, while "misanthropy" can be loosely defined as "hatred of mankind," "misogyny" is hatred of women and "misandry" is the hatred of men. And, sensibly, since "philanthropy" is the love of mankind, "philogyny" is the love of women.

This sort of pattern is never foolproof, unfortunately. I would guess that the counterpart for philogyny would be "philandry" based on the above conjugations, but the closest word I can find seems to be philanderer, which has quite a different meaning. Any ideas?

Ta

Ryan

P.S. The board's spellchecker had fun with this one. Oddly enough, it recognizes "polyandry" but not "polygyny." Hmmm.

On 10/24/99 4:10:37 AM, Donald Webb wrote:
>The question was debated to exhaustion
>on the HUMANIST list some years ago.
>The consensus was "misandrist," but
>nobody really liked it.


that's good, since it's not an antonym for misogynist anyway.
: )

I eagerly logged in to voice my reply of philogynist and was disappointed to see I wasn't the first. I am pleased to see, however, that my musings have been affirmed by other philologists.