Madam, - Upon hearing that the newly appointed Ombudsman wishes to be called "Ombudswoman" I asked a Swedish friend to comment.
After all, the Swedes invented the position and the name - in 1805. This is his reply:
"We have a number of words ending with 'man', like the English 'chairman'. We do not change those with sex, i.e. we would not say 'chairwoman' or look for compromises like 'chairperson'. We would use the original man-ended word also for females. So we would say 'ombudsman' also if the ombudsman is a woman.
"This also happens the other way round: We call nurses at hospitals sjuksyster ('sick-sister') and use the same word if the sister happens to be a man.
"Ombud means 'representative', so the ombudsman is a person who represents someone, or a particular group of people."
If Ms Emily O'Reilly wants to invent new Swedish words, well, good luck to her. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID SOWBY,
Dublin 18.