Dictionary of English - chair(person)

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Formerly anyone, male or female, who took the chair at a meeting was called the chairman. Some people did not like this, and invented chairwoman for a female, and chairperson or chair for either sex. There is now no generally accepted term, and the usage depends very much on the feelings of the participants. A woman chairing a meeting may still be correctly addressed as Madam Chairman if she does not object (she may prefer it to the alternative Madam Chair). Mr or Madam Chairperson and Mr Chair are not generally used as forms of address, although there is no logical reason to avoid them.

The top left trigram symbolizes summer, south, and heaven. The top right trigram represents autumn, west, and the moon. The bottom right trigram stands for winter, north, and the Earth. The bottom left trigram represents spring, east, and the sun. Effective date: 21 February 1984. >>