Catfights and Dogfights

Catfights and Dogfights Catfights and Dogfights Catfights and Dogfights By Maeve Maddox The following headline on the editorial page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette caught my eye: Catfight at pet clinic The first sentence of the editorial told me that whoever wrote the headline: 1. hadn’t read the editorial; 2. didn’t know the meaning of â€Å"catfight† How I know: 1. the editorial was about something that happened at an animal shelter, not a clinic. 2. the incident being commented on involved a worker who had threatened to kill his fellow workers. I don’t know of any definition of catfight that includes terroristic threatening. Here are two definitions of catfight as given in the OED: A fight between cats. A vicious fight or altercation, esp. between women. Merriam-Webster makes no reference to fighting women in its definition: catfight: a bitter and usually intensely personal dispute The definition at Answers.com also avoids any display of insensitivity towards women: A fight between or among cats. Informal. A vociferous dispute: a catfight between farmers and the government over subsidies. I suggest that what most people understand by catfight, when not used literally of felines, is a fight, verbal or physical, between or among women, as described here: Catfight is a term for an altercation between two women, typically involving scratching, slapping, hair-pulling, and shirt-shredding as opposed to punching or wrestling. Wikipedia The word dogfight, has different connotations. The OED hyphenates the word as dog-fight: A fight between dogs. transf. A general disturbance or mà ªlà ©e; spec. a ‘scrap’ between aircraft. Merriam-Webster spells it as one word, dogfight: 1 : a fight between or as if between dogs : MELEE; broadly : a fiercely disputed contest 2 : a fight in aerial warfare between two or more fighter planes usually maneuvering at close quarters Answers.com adds an addtional definition: An illegal, organized fight between dogs, arranged for spectator entertainment and betting. Political correctness aside, the words dog and cat carry gendered cultural connotations. For example, if someone describes a heterosexual married couple fighting â€Å"like cats and dogs,† which member of the couple do you think represents which animal in the mind of the hearer? Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Punctuate References to Dates and TimesOne Fell SwoopEducational vs. Educative