Once again, how to refer to a doctor

[cosmasad]

I know this has been touched on before but language changes and I am wondering what the latest feeling is about how to phrase "We have something urgent and need to speak to the doctor." When the doctor being referred to is a woman would you say:


Έχουμε κάτι έκτακτο και χρειαζόμαστε τον [or] την ιατρό?

I appreciate your insight.

 

[m_a_a_]

Είναι επείγον! Θέλουμε να δούμε τη γιατρό. / Πρέπει να δούμε τη γιατρό. / Χρειαζόμαστε γιατρό!
/ Πρέπει να δει [τη] γιατρό! (the patient being the subject) / Πρέπει να τον/τη δει [η] γιατρός! (the patient being the object)

I believe that the prevalent wording among current patients and those accompanying them to the hospital or what-not, would be something along these lines.

Έκτακτο is also OK, but at least to my ears, it sounds a tad stiffer than επείγον: As if the speaker is making some kind of half-conscious, half-arbitrary attempt to speak doctors' parlance.

Γιατρός is by far the most common way of referring to a doctor, regardless of gender.

Both ιατρός and γιατρέσα are obsolete, though the registers they belong to are almost polar opposites of each other, γιατρέσα being a kind of "folksy" term probably still occurring sporadically amongst old people (those with great-grandchildren), whereas ιατρός is somewhat of a warning sign that the person speaking might be thinking a bit too highly of the Greek language's heritage, so to speak...

Cheers!

 

[cougr]

Σχετικό νήμα

When a doctor is female

Good morning friends, When you know that a doctor is female and Γιατρος doesn't bend very well to the female is it okay to say "Τι λέει η γιατρός;" ? Thank you. One could ask the same think about αρχιτεκτονας and μηχανικος.

www.lexilogia.gr

 

[cosmasad]

Thank you, all. This is very helpful and makes sense. Γιατρέσα just sounds.... not right would be an understatement. Almost insulting. And to my mind there seems to be nothing wrong in saying τη γιατρό. It's interesting how some words BEND so gracefully toward the feminine like δάσκαλος/ δασκάλα and others don't. Happy Easter to all.

 

[Earion]

It's interesting how some words BEND so gracefully toward the feminine like δάσκαλος/ δασκάλα and others don't.

How wonderfully put!

 

[Palavra]

Cosmasad, this is not a language issue. The professions that don't gracefully bend toward the feminine are traditionally male professions, and the female forms of those professions were used to refer to the professional's wife. This is why they are considered derogatory, and why no one would say «η γιατρίνα Τάδε» out loud to her colleagues or to her directly.

This issue exists in all gendered languages, at least of the EU, such as Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek, and efforts are being made to rectify this issue.

This is an interesting video that explains the general idea behind these efforts:

 

[cosmasad]

Awesome! Thanks for the video!