executrix , executor

[keannu]

Doesn't 'executor' or 'executrix' mean a person who is in charge of a dying person's prorperty? It doesn't refer to actors or actresses, right?

st30)The use of heroine and executrix as referring to a hero or executor who is female illustrates what Douglas Hofstadter calls "the slippery slope" of meaning. In his book Metamagical Themas, Hofstadter shows diagrammatically how the slippery slope works. A triangle represents the idea of, let's say, a heroic person. At one base angle of this triangle is the word heroine, representing the female heroic person. At the other base angle is the word hero, representing the male heroic person. And at the apex is the generic word, again hero, encompassing both. But because the hero at the apex and the hero at one base are identical in name, their separate meanings slip back and forth along one side of the triangle, the slippery slope. The meanings blend and absorb each other. They bond together on the slope. And heroine, at the other base angle, remains outside that bond.

 

[Gillnetter]

Doesn't 'executor' or 'executrix' mean a person who is in charge of a dying person's prorperty? It doesn't refer to actors or actresses, right?

st30)The use of heroine and executrix as referring to a hero or executor who is female illustrates what Douglas Hofstadter calls "the slippery slope" of meaning...

An executor (male) or executrix (female), in the broadest sense, is one who does something. An executor could: kill someone under an order from the state, manage a will or estate, or preform an act. It would be correct, though not common, to say that I executed the act of starting the automobile this morning.

The writer here is saying that using the words executor or executrix for actors or actresses is changing, or broadening, the meaning of these terms.

 

[keannu]

Thanks a lot! But actors or actresses are for movies or TV, they may be included in this broad concept of "executor", but I don't know why the translator made such a limited interpretation of the word, translating it to only "actors".

 

[Gillnetter]

Thanks a lot! But actors or actresses are for movies or TV, they may be included in this broad concept of "executor", but I don't know why the translator made such a limited interpretation of the word, translating it to only "actors".

"The use of heroine and executrix as referring to a hero or executor who is female illustrates what Douglas Hofstadter calls "the slippery slope" of meaning... "

Because that is what the writer was writing about. He wasn't writing about airplane pilots or bus drivers, only actors and actresses. Do you understand what a "slippery slope" means?

 

[Barb_D]

Sorry, but I think that is not what the author is saying at all. The author is drawing parallels between two unrelated nouns and their feminine counterparts. Actor is to actress as executor is to exuectrix. It's not saying anything about actors being executors.

 

[Jaskin]

Please note not a teacher nor a native speaker

An executor (male) or executrix (female), in the broadest sense, is one who does something. An executor could: kill someone under an order from the state, manage a will or estate, or preform an act. It would be correct, though not common, to say that I executed the act of starting the automobile this morning.

The writer here is saying that using the words executor or executrix for actors or actresses is changing, or broadening, the meaning of these terms.

Isn't the term for the underline an executioner rather than executor ?

 

[keannu]

*Please see above for the whole original writing.
I agree with Barb_D. There's nothing related to actors, and this writing is wholly about discrimination regarding even when using female-specific terms in many areas and the triangle is just an analogy. I think "executrix" is just an example of female terms.

**I had to type in everything to help you understand, and this is really tough for me. This is an example of a workbook for college entrance exam and sometimes I feel like suing the publisher for wrong interpretations.:-?

 

[5jj]

Neither executor nor actor is restricted to people who have just one specified role.