clements@bbn-cd.arpa (08/14/84)
From: Bob Clements <clements@bbn-cd.arpa> Dick Binder says "A maven is the female counterpart of a master ...". I say "Foo". And my Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary agrees. It says: Maven or mavin n [Yiddish meyvn, ... fr Heb l'havin to understand](1952): one who is experienced or knowledgable Nothing about "female". /Rcc
katz%uci-750a@sri-unix.UUCP (08/17/84)
From: Martin D. Katz <katz@uci-750a> Maybe the confusion is with the word "Yente". Yente is often used in a slightly derogatory manner to mean a female busybody. Maven is sometimes used to mean a know-it-all, and in that context it means almost the same thing as Yente.
sigel%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa (08/22/84)
From: Andrew D. Sigel <sigel%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> When I used the world "maven" to refer to David Gerrold, little did I dream of what I would be stirring up. I understood the word to mean "expert", but with the extra oomph that usually accompanies a Yiddish word (which is quite probably misinterpretation on my part, but I've always had the impression that a maven was not only an expert, but one who either let you know they were, or were well-known for their expertise, the latter applying to Mr. Gerrold more than the former). However, I'll settle for "expert" without the oomph. My thanks to JoSH and Bob Clements for clarifying my meanings. It was bad enough to be wrong about the source of Nyota without inadvertantly accusing Mr. Gerrold of being a female anything. Andrew Sigel