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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006Gender in electrical connectors
I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 year old: "USB 2.0 cable A/male to B/male 1.8m in Grey". Is there an alternative, equally succinct system of naming these male and female connectors without reference to the gender? If there is none, can you suggest one?  SignatureLin Chung. [Replace "the Water Margin" with "ntlworld" for e-mail.] > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > year old: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > female connectors without reference to the gender? If there is none, can > you suggest one? "USB 2.0 with 2 ends, Cable A (size) prongy end to B (size) prongy end, covered in grey-ish insulation" /dps > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > year old: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > female connectors without reference to the gender? If there is none, can > you suggest one? A female connector (for USB, typically in a machine or a hub) can be identified as having an "admissive opening". /dps (Ironically, the Jack is a female connector) > > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > > year old: [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > (Ironically, the Jack is a female connector) You mean like these?? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_plug> Jan >> > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 >> > year old: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >You mean like these?? ><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_plug> There are many Jack Plugs (male) on that page but few Jacks, that is, sockets (female). I've always imagined (without supporting evidence) that a jack is so-called because of the roughly J-shaped contact(s) inside it. _____________ \/ SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) [...] > >> (Ironically, the Jack is a female connector) > > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > There are many Jack Plugs (male) on that page but few Jacks, that > is, sockets (female). Yeah ... the author of the article talks a lot about "jack plugs", though. Maybe the sockets should have been "jennies". > I've always imagined (without supporting evidence) that a jack is > so-called because of the roughly J-shaped contact(s) inside it. > > _____________ > \/ hmmm.... /dps >[...] >> >> (Ironically, the Jack is a female connector) [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >/dps If it's humming there is probably a poor connection or a bee has got into the works. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > >> > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one > >> > to a 5 year old: "USB 2.0 cable A/male to B/male 1.8m in Grey". [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > _____________ > \/ You are right of course. However, in everyday usage a 'jack plug' is often called a 'jack' too, Jan > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > year old: [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Lin Chung. > [Replace "the Water Margin" with "ntlworld" for e-mail.] Plug = male Socket = female > "Lin Chung" <lin.chung@the Water Margin.com> wrote in message > > Is there an alternative, equally succinct system of naming these male and > > female connectors without reference to the gender? If there is none, can > > Plug = male > Socket = female Except that you can have, for example, plugs with prongs, plugs with holes, sockets with prongs and sockets with holes. For example, with IDC connectors. An IDC header 'plug' is actually a female connector, it has holes in it. But, you can also get male IDC header plugs, with prongs. Similarly for the cother end that mouns on the PCB. SignatureJGH jgh wrote; > For example, with IDC connectors. An IDC header 'plug' > is actually a female connector, it has holes in it. But, > you can also get male IDC header plugs, with prongs. The second page of http://www.electusdistribution.com.au/images_uploaded/IDCconnE.pdf has a photo showing a good example of a male D-plug and a female D-plug. SignatureJGH jgh@arcade.demon.co.uk filted: >> "Lin Chung" <lin.chung@the Water Margin.com> wrote in message >> > Is there an alternative, equally succinct system of naming these male and [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >plugs with holes, sockets with prongs and sockets with >holes. No two ways about it...Kinsey was a piker....r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > year old: > "USB 2.0 cable A/male to B/male 1.8m in Grey". Why would you be using cabling terminology with a five year old? > "Lin Chung" <lin.chung@the Water Margin.com> wrote >> I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this >> one to a 5 year old: >> "USB 2.0 cable A/male to B/male 1.8m in Grey". > > Why would you be using cabling terminology with a five year old? Who do you think is their home network administrator? SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. Unmunged email: /at/easypeasy.com "Impatience is the mother of misery." Lin Chung filted: >I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 >year old: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >female connectors without reference to the gender? If there is none, can >you suggest one? Convex and concave, respectively?... Or yang and yin if you're so inclined...those are often defined in terms of gender but the distinction is more profound....r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. > Lin Chung filted: > > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Or yang and yin if you're so inclined...those are often defined in terms of > gender but the distinction is more profound....r Topologically this the best example of what one would call 'sexless' in plugs, Jan > > Lin Chung filted: > > > > > >I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > > >year old: > > >"USB 2.0 cable A/male to B/male 1.8m in Grey". [...] > Topologically this the best example > of what one would call 'sexless' in plugs, And linguistically it's hard to find a better example of a case in which it's inappropriate to use the word "gender" instead of "sex". And, nearer to the topic, it's actually a good idea to talk about sex, in very simple terms, to one's own five-year-old. SignatureMike. > > > Lin Chung filted: > > > > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > And linguistically it's hard to find a better example of a case in > which it's inappropriate to use the word "gender" instead of "sex". Conversely it's a gender changer rather than a sex changer. And even more off-topic: I did see a male-male one referred to as a 'double dildo', Jan >> > Lin Chung filted: >> > > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >And, nearer to the topic, it's actually a good idea to talk about sex, >in very simple terms, to one's own five-year-old. Back in the 1950s my prep school roommate and I were doing a fix on the record player system in teh school common room, we being the class geeks. I told my roomie to hand me "that male connector", a simple 1/4-inch audio plug. One of our classmates was standing there with his date, and asked, "Why do you call them 'male' connectors?" I turned to him with a plug and jack, shoved them together and then pulled them apart and asked "Get it?" He turned five shades of red and whispered, "Not in front of Jane." ************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@cox.net) ************* * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow * * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * Hatunen filted: >One of our classmates >was standing there with his date, and asked, "Why do you call [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >He turned five shades of red and whispered, "Not in front of >Jane." One suspects that the evening wouldn't have gone well anyway....r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. > Convex and concave, respectively?... > > Or yang and yin if you're so inclined...those are often defined in > terms of gender but the distinction is more profound....r There was once a young man from Racine Who invented a ******* machine. Concave and convex, It could fit either sex, And took care of itself in between. Signature--- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net ||: Of the components of love, jealousy has the longest decay :|| ||: time. :|| Joe Fineman filted: >> Convex and concave, respectively?... >> [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > It could fit either sex, >And took care of itself in between. The version I heard concluded "with attachments for those in between".... ObUsage: is "in between" Pondial?...r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. > Joe Fineman filted: >>There was once a young man from Racine >>Who invented a ******* machine. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > The version I heard concluded "with attachments for those in between".... Others prefer "And was perfectly simple to clean". > ObUsage: is "in between" Pondial?...r I doubt it, but my print OED seems to list it only as a hyphenated adjective, and my electronic one, like most people's these days, is out of order. Signature--- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net ||: Politicians need to have an indecent respect for the opinion :|| ||: of mankind. :|| > There was once a young man from Racine > Who invented a ******* machine. > Concave and convex, > It could fit either sex, > And took care of itself in between. Adaptive, computer-controlled. A heater in case you got cold. A button marked "go", A button marked "come", And a special attachment to stick up your bum. A glove for three sizes of pricks; Twenty-seven programmable tricks. It never ran hot And the whole bloody lot Was controlled by a three eighty-six. A speed control knob at the front And a range control: series or shunt. A horn that went "beep" If you fell off to sleep; It was almost as good as a sheep. SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. >> There was once a young man from Racine >> Who invented a ******* machine. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > >Adaptive, computer-controlled. .... [Snip most of filthy limericks] >It was almost as good as a sheep. Applause. One of your own? >>> There was once a young man from Racine >>> Who invented a ******* machine. [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Applause. One of your own? Yes, from many years ago. (I omitted a number of verses that were less relevant to AUE.) One of my colleagues was in the habit of reading out a brief rhyme for the departure party of anyone who was leaving the department. When said colleague reached his 40th birthday, we naturally decided to compile a book of poems for him. My contribution was a story in limerick form about his invention of a w.nking machine with a variable-speed drive. The book still exists somewhere in the university archives. Some years later the same person resigned to go to Melbourne, and we produced a similar book. In that case I wrote a much more elaborate sequel. I probably have a copy somewhere, although it would be a challenge to find it. The opening lines were something like: You'll recall when our hero turned forty And had just started losing his mind We told you a story, quite naughty, Of a fancy machine he designed. You'll also recall that some people were shocked To hear such indecorous verse So we'll now have a pause for the doors to be locked Because this one is definitely worse. The essence of the story was the development of a two-sex model, with successive versions becoming both more fancy and more compact. The ending was something like: Could this be the limit in making it small? No; our hero could not be contented Till he'd trimmed it right down to be nothing at all And that's how the f.ck was invented. SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. > > Convex and concave, respectively?... > > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > It could fit either sex, > And took care of itself in between. DREAM INTERPRETATION Simplified. Everything's either concave or -vex, so whatever you dream will be something with sex. (Piet Hein) > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > year old: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > female connectors without reference to the gender? If there is none, can > you suggest one? Generally ''plug' for male and 'socket' for female connectors. I'd strongly recommend you be truthful and use normally-used words with your child. Let a bright child be bright. Please, do not feed him with strange words that make him strange in the wider world. There's no reason to avoid those male-female convention; if for some reason you feel uncomfortable about it and prefer not to think or explain in terms of anatomy then you could simply say that people working with these parts use the male-female words as a way to remember which part is which. SignatureSolo Thesailor http://sailingstoriesandtips.blogspot.com Lin Chung (or somebody else of the same name) wrote thusly in message <exP3h.15612$r4.9376@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net>: > I had difficulty in explaining the gender designation like this one to a 5 > year old: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > female connectors without reference to the gender? If there is none, can > you suggest one? Keep the words, for they are in common use and that may well be what is printed in the manual. Simply explain that "that's what they say" when two different parts are intended to be joined together. Don't make it any more specific than that. Certainly there's no need to explain why one particular connector is considered male and the other one female. SignatureWarning: keel away from child for hot bulb Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply Lin Chung (or somebody else of the same name) signed off with > [Replace "the Water Margin" with "something else" for e-mail.] Careful, spambots have evolved to the point where they can interpret this sort of line for themselves and make the necessary switch. The instructions need to be less explicit. SignatureWarning: keel away from child for hot bulb Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply >Lin Chung (or somebody else of the same name) signed off with > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >sort of line for themselves and make the necessary switch. The instructions >need to be less explicit. Or get a better spam filter and publish an address that works, rather than expecting your correspondents to solve a rebus in order to send a private message. -GAWollman (12 years on the same spot) SignatureGarrett A. Wollman | The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are wollman@csail.mit.edu| nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry Opinions not those | grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape of MIT or CSAIL. | our history. - S.J. Gould, Ten Thousand Acts of Kindness |
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