Attention world:
In the English language, a woman CANNOT "sire" a child. The verb to sire is a specifically male verb - it means to provide the sperm in the biological act of procreation (at least for mammals - I have no idea what kinds of verbs are used for other animals).
A woman can bear a child. If it's some kind of surrogacy situation, a woman can be the mother of a child or the biological mother of a child or mother a child or raise a child. But, unless science has advanced greatly since I read the morning papers, a woman absolutely cannot sire a child. To sire means to father*. Period.
This has been a public service announcement!
*Aside: I just realized that the verb "to father" means simply to contribute genetic material, without any implication of active involvement in the child's life. However, "to mother" and "to parent" both imply active involvement. Interesting.
2 comments:
in your next english lesson, please address the misuse of the word "literally!"
thanks.
:)
i'm off to watch "sire" on something now.
In one of the conference room in the building where I work, someone put up all these signs saying "literally [is not equal to] figuratively"
(They used the not equal to sign, but I can't convince my computer to duplicate it here.
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