[ta82828]

The etymology of the word "mankind" is not as sexist as most people think. The word "man" used to mean "person" and the words "wereman" and "wyfman" used to mean male person and female person respectively (hence werewolf). The word mankind was in use in a gender neutral way concurrently with different terms that meant "group of male humans".

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mankind

[greggyb]

So ... mankind is fine, but in our fantasy work we should refer to manwolves in the neutral-plural, with werewolf and wyfwolf reserved for circumstances where gender-specificity is important?

[ta82828]

If you think "werewolf" is sexist, I would recommend "lycanthrope" as an alternative, rather than "manwolf".

I did not say "mankind is fine" I said that it's etymology is not sexist. The word is not "mankind" because only men count, the word is "mankind" because when it was made up "man" included all people.

That said, it's frustrating when perfectly good words like mankind are labelled as offensive because people either misunderstand their origins, ignore the intent with which they are used, or are simply looking for reasons to be offended.