Can a woman be called HERO?

[jiaruchan]

Metro driver called a hero who saved lives in crash - CNN.com

As I understand，a hero is a man， a heroin is a woman. Any new definition in this regard？

[bhaisahab]

Metro driver called a hero who saved lives in crash - CNN.com

As I understand，a hero is a man， a heroin is a woman. Any new definition in this regard？

Hero is masculine, heroine is feminine.

[jiaruchan]

Hero is masculine, heroine is feminine.

Thank you for correcting the spelling.

I know the difference between hero and heroine. Do you mean the
CNN report has made a mistake?

[bhaisahab]

Thank you for correcting the spelling.

I know the difference between hero and heroine. Do you mean the
CNN report has made a mistake?

Perhaps they are being 'politically correct', not drawing a distiction between male and female.

[BobK]

bhaisahab has answered your question, but to answer the question posed in the subject of this thread, Yes! I know a woman called "Hero". It is quite an old fashioned name, but it is a girl's name.

(To put it more directly, the subject of this thread should have been 'Can a woman be called a hero?')

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[orangutan]

Hero was the name of an ancient Greek... er, heroine.

[Raymott]

Metro driver called a hero who saved lives in crash - CNN.com

As I understand，a hero is a man， a heroin is a woman. Any new definition in this regard？

Yes, a woman can be a hero.
'Hero' and 'heroine' are counterparts if you're talking about characters in a novel. But these days, a woman who does something courageous like this is more likely to be labelled a hero than a heroine (in my experience).

[BobK]

Hero was the name of an ancient Greek... er, heroine.

Indeed. When I said 'old-fashioned' though I didn't mean 'used by the ancient Greeks'! Until the 1950s the name was quite popular (in England, that is, and 'not unknown' might be more accurate then 'quite popular'). But if you consider the current cohort of nursery-school goers, there will be hundreds of little girls called Kaylie and very few, if any, called Hero.

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[jackolantern]

I am not a teacher, but I am a native speaker.

There are quite a few feminine forms of terms that are falling out of use. As bhaisahab said, this has a lot to do with "political correctness".

Also, the word "heroine" has another cultural problem with it. In the late 1800's, Bayer Pharmaceuticals decided to use the word for its new product, the now-infamous "Heroin" (aka diacetylmorphine). As pretty much everyone knows, their creation has destroyed countless lives and families, so that may also be attributed to a lessened use of the word "heroine" to mean a female hero.

[BobK]

...
There are quite a few feminine forms of terms that are falling out of use. As bhaisahab said, this has a lot to do with "political correctness".

...

And some fell out of use even before the onset of political correctness: my favourite was 'aviatrix' - Aviator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Wikipedia thinks it's still in use; the writer of the article presumably isn't from the UK) )

b