The origins of 'chairman' (1)

Revel Barker (February 6) might have missed the main point of my letter regarding the usage of the word "chairman". There are two main factors.

First, it is only in the British Isles that "chairman" is used. As far as I can ascertain, all the other countries use the word "president". Even in Malta, within living memory we only had "presidents".

Second, "chairman" is a non-gender specific noun. The "man" part of it stems from the Latin "manus" meaning hand, also found in the words manual, foreman and manage. Thus it is sheer ignorance to associate "chairman" with the masculine gender. Those seeking to be politically correct in fact show crass ignorance of which they cannot be proud.

Regarding the origins of the word, I beg to disagree. Oliver Cromwell was not a republican. He called himself "Lord Protector"; therefore he tacitly accepted certain royal nomenclature, and even tried to create a dynasty. About his popularity one must remember that it all depends on the specific areas of the British Isles. In 1661, his body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution. Symbolically, this took place on January 30; the same date that Charles I had been executed. His body was hung in chains at Tyburn. Finally, his disinterred body was thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Abbey until 1685. Afterwards the head changed hands several times, before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960. It is all a question of religious intolerance!

The use of chair - not the full word "chairman" (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) refers to being in charge of a meeting, as in "to chair a meeting", dates from 1658 (and not 1653) when the Protectorate was in its final days.

This is not a question of re-writing history, but some British are perhaps still proud of the atrocities carried out by Cromwell and the Roundheads.