At the beginning of many legal contracts is a section that deals with 'customary definitions of terms'. This thread is a spin-off of nsnelson's post on racism, which caused me to recall that there was a tacit understanding that "men" in the Declaration of Independence meant 'free white males'. But there are other definitions of the word "men" and it might have been cleaner simply to redefine that word in the Constitution as opposed to adding amendments.

Obviously, one of the potential definitions is that "men" means "males of all races". But another definition provides the turning point of the Lord of the Rings, is a crucial twist in the Celtic poem Battle of Clontarf, and is present in traditional liturgical texts, eg "man does not live by bread alone". That second definition is that "man" means "mankind".

Should we just reclaim the words "man" and "men" to mean "person" and dispense with specific racial and genderic laws and regulations?

Jan