11.25.2005

Word Problems

1. When writing a woman in the medical professional community, I found myself writing "your fellow radiologists."

Is there an easy alternative to "fellow," devoid of gender?

2. One word describes that black so black it appears to contain purples and blues: jet black. We use it, and it creates the exact image we need. But, we end up leaning on it, and it has become a touch cliche.

Is there another word for jet black, some synonym to keep it fresh?

3 comments:

kabuku6 said...

For the Fellow part I figured:
coequal
colleague
counterpart

For jet black, the best I could come up with are:
ebon
onyx

Hope these help.

Tafea said...

Blurple

Kyle Stich said...

Tafea, blurple is truly a perfect word for "jet black," but probably requires a disclaimer before usage...until it enters mainstream use, that is. Maybe we all need to use the word on our blogs five times each within a two-week span.

Logan, I'd probably opt for ebon and colleague. "Colleague," however perfectly gender free it may be, is only functionable as a noun unfortunately. "Fellow" works so well because it can function as both a noun and an adjective. Thanks for the great suggestions, the synonyms for "jet black" shall certainly make their way into my colored vocabulary.