I posted recently that at Reuters we prefer gender neutral terms for people’s occupations. Where possible we use the same term for men and women, e.g. mayor or poet, not mayoress or poetess. But we stay away from less common usages, such as ‘chairperson,’ and avoid absurd non-discriminatory coinages such as ‘peopleslaughter’ (for ‘manslaughter’).

A colleague asked why then in soccer stories do we use linesman instead of FIFA’s preferred ‘referee’s assistant’? I turned to Reuters sports editor Paul Radford for help. A woman in a Reuters soccer story would be the referee or the lineswoman, Paul told me. Women officiating in professional soccer is relatively new and still rare. When we write about it the gender of the official is often the point of the story, he noted.

The term ‘referee’s assistant’ was devised by FIFA a few year’s ago but is considered cumbersome by many, argues Paul. Has it caught on? A brief web search throws up examples of its use in Britain’s Guardian newspaper and The Daily Telegraph but more examples of ‘linesman’. Judging the moment when a linguistic usage has become common and should be adopted is always tricky for news organisations.

Sean Maguire is Editor, Political and General News

Reuters Photo by Fatih Saribas of French lineswoman Nelly Viennot in a Champions League game in Istanbul in 2002