the male dancer all you need for ballet & dance for beginners & advanced register for free now !  de - en - es - nl tribute for all women Users online: 57 [ Forum ]  [ New messages ] Name (register):  Password registered user:  Email address (optional):  Subject:  Text formatting:                     [i]Q: If a female dancer is called a ballerina, what is a male<br>dancer called?<p>A. There's no satisfactory answer to this one. Theoretically,<br>even though the Italian "ballerina" means simply "female dancer,"<br>only a *principal* female dancer is supposed to be called a<br>ballerina. If that restriction were universally observed, then<br>the nearest male equivalent would be the French premi`er danseur<br>("first dancer"). But in practice, people use ballerina to refer<br>to any female ballet dancer, and in that case all you can say is<br>"dancer" for the male.<p>I suppose you could be pedantic and use the Italian masculine<br>form ballerino, but people probably wouldn't understand you and,<br>worse, are likely to mis-hear the word as "ballerina," which<br>could lead to endless confusion.<p>Tom<br><ul><li><a href="http://www.panix.com/~twp" target="_top">Tom's Page</a></ul><br>[/i] URL of own homepage (optional):  Name of homepage (without the homepage will not show!):  URL of a picture (optional):       Tags for smilies [neener]   [lurk]   [fire]   [grmpf-blue]   [grmpf-red]   [grmpf]   [brood-blue]   [brood-lilac]   [brood-red]   [brood]   [heart-pink]   [heart]   [kiss]   [normal]   [oh-lilac]   [acidic-red]   [oh]   [acidic-lilac]   [acidic-red]   [acidic]   [smile-orange]   [smile]   [pointed]   [updown]   [twinkle]