(Photo Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Veronica Mammina/Released)

The U.S. Navy is stumped. How do you make a term like ‘yeoman’ gender neutral? Yeoperson? Yeotechnician? Yeoprofessional?

Since the military’s effort to integrate women into all job roles moved full speed ahead, the Navy and Marine Corps has worked to remove gendered terms like ‘man’ from its most common job titles. Most of the time, this is pretty easy. Rifleman can become rifle technician. Infantryman can become Infantry officer. This also works outside the military; firemen are now firefighters, policemen are police officers, etc.

The reason it’s possible to make those changes so easily is because root words like ‘rifle’ and ‘infantry’ mean something on their own. The word ‘yeo’ does not exist in the modern English language. And here lies the military’s dilemma.

Michael D. Stevens, the Navy officer tasked with revising job titles, told the New York Times that swapping around the language in ‘yeoman’ is

“You can’t have yeo-specialist or yeo-technician, right?” said Stevens. “Yeo-person? There is no such thing.”

The military job title ‘yeoman’ has roots reaching back to the Middle Ages. Linguists believe the term might be a contraction of iunge man, the Old English term for ‘young man.’ Old English speakers often rearranged, combined and shortened phrases to make them easier to say. For example, the phrase ‘God be with you’ was shortened to ‘God b’ye’ and then combined with ‘Good Morning’ to create ‘goodbye.’

Just as ‘goodbye’ has moved away from its original definition, yeoman means something so different from its origins that its prefix ‘yeo’ doesn’t have a definition at all. Which leaves the Navy with a conundrum.

What do you think should be done about this job title? Tell us your suggestions (and your favorite yeo- words) in the comments.