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I have noticed that some folks will use the phrase "amen" , not in an apparent religious sense, but in an enthusiastic shared agreement manner. I am not so hard core in my atheist viewpoint to have this bother me, so I am ok with people doing this. My question is why "amen"? Why not "awomen"?

creative51 8 July 9
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23 comments

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12

Amen just means ‘so be it’, translated from Hebrew. Nothing to do with men or women.

8

For the same reason it isn't "womenopause" ** or "womanual" or "womental" or "sentiwomental" or "womandolin" or "womangle" or "Womanhattan." Because like "amen," none of these occurrences of "men" or "man" have anything to do etymologically with male human beings.

** My girlfriend came up with "womenopause," which I'm putting first as it's considerably more clever than most of mine. She also wondered (in jest, obviously) why single men don't call their bed linens "heets" and their garden tools "hears." Along those same lines, I'd ask why rams aren't "heep" and those men tending the flocks "hepherds."

I really like this post!

Awomen to that!

7

Amen is Hebrew for "so be it". I don't think it's necessarily a religious word.

Awomen!

6

I'll probably get in trouble over this, even though I'm just joking..... awomen is used when everybody disagrees?

Awomen brother, awomen.

Look at y'all, flirtin' with disaster and everthang.
LOL

5

Giggles....

I don’t think ridding yourself of religious nomenclature is possible. Hell, there is a lot of beautiful prose found in scripture I quote often. It’s on par with reciting Shakespeare (for me).

You just used hell 😀. Part of the religious story

3

I never use 'amen' or 'Oh my god'...

I vote for replacing "God" with Gandhi...he's real, and apparently a pretty cool guy! 😀

3

Amen is often explained to mean so be it in Hebrew, it does not, there is a similar Hebrew word, with a guttural stress on both vowels sounding rather like Ach-mench which actually means Verily or Certainly.
The word Amen actually predated Judaism and the Hebrew language by millenia, it is found in ancient Egyptian text, Babylonian and Sumerian, similar words are also found in Arabic, Aramaic, Hindi and Urdu, there are even similar words used for ending prayer in the mesoAmerican ancient tongues and Chinese.
However there is a much repeated theory that Amen is the name of the Sun God Amun, this is not true as the god Amun's name is distinct in the written prayers to him ending in Amen, to claim other wise is to say in English that you can legitimately call Jesus the Lard and Saviour and say it's okay because Lords are made from blocks of Lard.

Tathastu in Sanskrit

@St-Sinner Sounds like I should be answering that with Gazuntite or bless you.

@LenHazell53

In Germany, it's polite to say “gesundheit” after someone sneezes, which more or less means “health.

3

Well for one thing, God is male..... 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

2

I just laugh at their mispronounciation of "Amun Ra"!

2

Latin word, not sexist.......

2

So be it.

2

I use it sarcastically.

2

I say "Amen, sis!!" All the time! I mean it as hell yeah, I agree or hook me up. 😁

2

The same reason the word “mental” is not “womental”, the same reason the word “manure” is not “womanure”, the same reason the country “Guyana” is not called “Galana”. English is just a sexist language.

1

What Bitflipper said.

1

repeat awomen loud in an enthusiastic way and you will discover it XD

1

I use it on this site ironically.

1

A mistranslation from the word “truly”. In Hebrew it’s spelled Emunah. Ewumanah would be too hard to say, I suppose. 😅

1

I'm quite radical but there are things you don't have to take too seriously. I actually am one guy that will do the same, use "amen" as a form of agreement.

1

Amen

1
0

To answer your question, it is because we live in patriarchy. Perhaps you have not noticed this?

@creative51 Did not miss your point but other may.

0

I just say, 'sure,' or, 'right.'
I admit I avoid saying, 'amen,' the same way I avoid saying, 'god d*mn it,' or 'jesus christ!,' or, 'thank god!' and lot of other common phrases, to the point I've almost excised it all from my vocabulary. It's amazing how many of them there are!
Regardless of it's root meaning (so be it), I consider it a religious word and shun it.

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