These words, the definition of which by the French Academy astounds the Human Rights League

The Human Rights League was “stunned” by discovering the “archaic” and “dismaying” definitions in the Dictionary of the French Academy.

The Human Rights League (LDH) calls for “urgent rectification” some definitions present in the ninth edition of the Dictionaryof the French Academy. In a press release published on Tuesday, November 26, the association accuses the collection of 59,000 words of participating in a “vision of our world that is at best archaic”. On November 14, during an official ceremony, the dictionary had nevertheless been solemnly presented à Emmanuel Macron. Enough to fuel the "consternation" of the LDH which calls on the és Fayard "to take responsibility for the printed distribution of the versions of this  Dictionary". 

“The treatment of racism, which is fraught with challenges in the world we live in”, is “staggering”, the association continues. As an example, she gives the definition of the word “race” which refers to “each of the large groups into which the human species is superficially divided according to the distinctive physical characteristics that have been maintained or have appeared in each of them, due to their geographical isolation over prolonged periods. A man of the black race, of the white race, of the yellow race”. The word “yellow” can also be read as “a person or population characterized in particular by yellow or copper pigmentation of the skin, as opposed to “white” and “black”, the LDH is indignant.

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The association also notes the presence of the word “negro”, defined as “a small black child”, and that of “negro”, supposedly synonymous with a person possessing “some of the morphological characteristics of black populations”. Overall, “no distance is marked with these entries, none of them is reported as discriminatory or pejorative”, indicates the association for the defense of human rights.

And this is not the only register considered “dismaying” by the association. Indeed, “on the other hand the following definition is added to the word “woman”: “A human being defined by her sexual characteristics that enable her to conceive and give birth to children”, points out the LDH. “Should we conclude that a sterile or menopausal woman is not one” ?”, it asks. Further on, at the entry defining heterosexuality as a “natural relationship between the sexes”, she emphasizes: “which implies that homosexuality is not, itself, natural”.

Contacted by Agence-France-Presse, the Académie française is still slow to respond. At her last press conference, she had nevertheless announced that she was considering the possibility of modifying certain definitions in the online version without waiting for the re-examination of the word concerned, which is normally done from A to Z.