tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454984.post4548447905262835816..comments2023-07-15T03:39:20.802-07:00Comments on Not Invented Here: Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454984.post-87796862544181193152011-07-12T08:41:40.413-07:002011-07-12T08:41:40.413-07:00I think "you guys" is mostly an East Coa...I think "you guys" is mostly an East Coast (specifically Noo Yawk) thing and agree with Barry that it's just a second-person plural, equivalent to "y'all" (when I lived in Joisey I worked with someone from Pittsburgh who insisted that the right term is "yins"). It's gender-neutral -- heck, in chatting with a lesbian couple on my block the other day I referred to them as "you guys". :) More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youstpeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01195241199351048629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454984.post-85324416123156052011-07-11T19:38:44.500-07:002011-07-11T19:38:44.500-07:00I regularly refer to women (in the singular) as &q...I regularly refer to women (in the singular) as "dude", but that may be an affectation I picked up at my college as an undergrad -- it was a local habit.Perry Metzgernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454984.post-66379560232283702702011-07-11T14:40:01.027-07:002011-07-11T14:40:01.027-07:00When Lou Gerstner was IBM CEO, he would refer to g...When Lou Gerstner was IBM CEO, he would refer to generic groups as "guys", and got some objection from certain women in the company. Reportedly, he definitively announced at a high-level meeting one time that when he says "guys," he means men and women together, and it's not a negotiable thing. And that was that.<br /><br />I don't think I ever refer to mixed groups of people as "guys", but I consider "you guys" to be an idiom that means "y'all", "yous", "yuhs", "Ustedes", "vous", or whatever other term one might use for the second person plural. That is, "you guys," to me, is a "word" that's the plural of "you" — it does not mean "you set of guys."<br /><br />The most obvious other once-derogatory term that was adopted by the people it referred to is "queer". I wouldn't include "n-", because, while that one is cerainly widely used within its group, it has most certainly <b>not</b> attained general acceptance.<br /><br />And, no, I don't know whether there's a word for that. One could coin one.Barry Leibahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14205294935881991457noreply@blogger.com