Editor:

In Barry Evans' excellent Oct. 13 Field Notes column ("Vive la Difference") on gender and language, he notes that English generally "marks" or augments nouns applied to males to generate female counterparts. He provides examples such as heir/heiress and god/goddess and says he's "hard-put to find a counter-example." I can offer one: widow/widower.

Richard Engel, Arcata