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{
"etymology_text": "A well-known feminist slogan coined in 1970 by the Australian filmmaker, social activist, and writer Irina Dunn (born 1948); according to her recollection, adapted from the phrase “A man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle” which she read in a philosophical text. The original phrase appears to be “A man without faith is like a fish without a bicycle”, coined by Charles S. Harris in 1955 and published in a 1958 article in the Swarthmore Phoenix. The phrase is often erroneously attributed to the American feminist journalist and social political activist Gloria Steinem (born 1934), but she disclaimed this in a letter to Time magazine published on 16 September 2000.",
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"expansion": "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle",
"name": "head"
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"hyphenation": [
"a"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
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"kind": "other",
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{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Feminism",
"orig": "en:Feminism",
"parents": [
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"Gender",
"Ideologies",
"Society",
"Sociology",
"Biology",
"Psychology",
"Politics",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1975 January 25, “Column 8”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 42,779, Sydney, N.S.W.: John Fairfax & Sons, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 8",
"text": "We found this anonymous contribution to International Women's Year on a wall at Forest Lodge: \"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.\"\nApparently the first appearance of the phrase in print.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1990, Jane Adams, Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty: How to Live Happily Ever After—Starting Right Now, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, page 107",
"text": "No matter how hip or how liberated I got to be, I could never really convince my deepest self that a woman without a man, at least when the music started, was like a fish without a bicycle.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Wesley L. Ford, “Safe Conduct: Guidelines for an Affair of the Heart”, in How to Pick a Lover: For Women Who Want to Win at Love, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, page 359",
"text": "Women who are ideologically opposed to marriage would go along with Gloria Steinem's commonly quoted maxim: \"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.\" If, whatever your reasons, you are adamantly not the marrying kind, then it is important for you to make that clear to any man who becomes involved with you.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Hanne Blank, “The Marrying Type”, in Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press",
"text": "By 1962, well before the so-called \"sexual revolution\" or even the feminist slogan \"a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle,\" Helen Gurley Brown could write in Sex and the Single Girl, \"I think marriage is insurance for the worst years of your life.[\"]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014 November, Mary McHugh, Chorus Lines, Caviar, and Corpses: A Happy Hoofers Mystery, Kensington Publishing Corp., page 28",
"text": "\"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle,\" I said. \"One of these days you're going to want another bicycle,\" she said, laughing.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A woman is capable of living a complete and independent life without a man."
],
"id": "en-a_woman_without_a_man_is_like_a_fish_without_a_bicycle-en-phrase-OHijVVF7",
"links": [
[
"humorous",
"humorous"
],
[
"woman",
"woman"
],
[
"capable",
"capable"
],
[
"complete",
"complete"
],
[
"independent",
"independent"
],
[
"man",
"man"
]
],
"qualifier": "simile",
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively, humorous, simile) A woman is capable of living a complete and independent life without a man."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
}
],
"tags": [
"figuratively",
"humorous"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "沒有男人的女人就像沒有自行車的魚"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "méiyǒu nánren de nǚrén jiùxiàng méiyǒu zìxíngchē de yú",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "没有男人的女人就像没有自行车的鱼"
},
{
"code": "wuu",
"lang": "Wu Chinese",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "嘸沒男人個女人赛过嘸沒腳踏車個魚"
},
{
"code": "wuu",
"lang": "Wu Chinese",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "呒没男人个女人赛过呒没脚踏车个鱼"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "een vrouw zonder man is als een vis zonder fiets"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "nainen ilman miestä on kuin kala ilman polkupyörää"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "une femme sans homme est comme un poisson sans bicyclette"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "eine Frau ohne Mann ist wie ein Fisch ohne Fahrrad"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"note": "literal translation if quoting the English phrase",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "una donna senza un uomo è come un pesce senza bicicletta"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "en kvinne uten mann er som en fisk uten sykkel"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "kobieta tak potrzebuje mężczyzny, jak ryba potrzebuje roweru"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "uma mulher sem um homem é como um peixe sem uma bicicleta"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "o femeie fără bărbat este ca un pește fără bicicletă"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "женщина без мужчины — всё равно что рыба без велосипеда (ženščina bez mužčiny — vsjo ravno što ryba bez velosipeda)",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "женщина без мужчины — всё равно что рыбка без зонтика (ženščina bez mužčiny — vsjo ravno što rybka bez zontika)",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "žena bez muškarca je kao riba bez bicikla"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "una mujer sin un hombre es como un pez sin bicicleta"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "en kvinna utan en man är som en fisk utan en cykel"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Gloria Steinem",
"Irina Dunn",
"Nigel Rees",
"Swarthmore College"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ə ˈwʊmən wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈmæn ɪz laɪk ə ˈfɪʃ wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈbaɪsɪkl̩/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ə ˈwʊmən wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈmæn ɪz laɪk ə ˈfɪʃ wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈbaɪˌsɪkəl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
}
],
"word": "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle"
}
{
"etymology_text": "A well-known feminist slogan coined in 1970 by the Australian filmmaker, social activist, and writer Irina Dunn (born 1948); according to her recollection, adapted from the phrase “A man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle” which she read in a philosophical text. The original phrase appears to be “A man without faith is like a fish without a bicycle”, coined by Charles S. Harris in 1955 and published in a 1958 article in the Swarthmore Phoenix. The phrase is often erroneously attributed to the American feminist journalist and social political activist Gloria Steinem (born 1934), but she disclaimed this in a letter to Time magazine published on 16 September 2000.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
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"2": "phrase"
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"expansion": "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle",
"name": "head"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"a"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English humorous terms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English phrases",
"English similes",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Feminism"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1975 January 25, “Column 8”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 42,779, Sydney, N.S.W.: John Fairfax & Sons, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 8",
"text": "We found this anonymous contribution to International Women's Year on a wall at Forest Lodge: \"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.\"\nApparently the first appearance of the phrase in print.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1990, Jane Adams, Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty: How to Live Happily Ever After—Starting Right Now, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, page 107",
"text": "No matter how hip or how liberated I got to be, I could never really convince my deepest self that a woman without a man, at least when the music started, was like a fish without a bicycle.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Wesley L. Ford, “Safe Conduct: Guidelines for an Affair of the Heart”, in How to Pick a Lover: For Women Who Want to Win at Love, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, page 359",
"text": "Women who are ideologically opposed to marriage would go along with Gloria Steinem's commonly quoted maxim: \"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.\" If, whatever your reasons, you are adamantly not the marrying kind, then it is important for you to make that clear to any man who becomes involved with you.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Hanne Blank, “The Marrying Type”, in Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press",
"text": "By 1962, well before the so-called \"sexual revolution\" or even the feminist slogan \"a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle,\" Helen Gurley Brown could write in Sex and the Single Girl, \"I think marriage is insurance for the worst years of your life.[\"]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014 November, Mary McHugh, Chorus Lines, Caviar, and Corpses: A Happy Hoofers Mystery, Kensington Publishing Corp., page 28",
"text": "\"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle,\" I said. \"One of these days you're going to want another bicycle,\" she said, laughing.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A woman is capable of living a complete and independent life without a man."
],
"links": [
[
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"humorous"
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[
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"woman"
],
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"capable"
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[
"independent",
"independent"
],
[
"man",
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]
],
"qualifier": "simile",
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively, humorous, simile) A woman is capable of living a complete and independent life without a man."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively",
"humorous"
],
"wikipedia": [
"Gloria Steinem",
"Irina Dunn",
"Nigel Rees",
"Swarthmore College"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ə ˈwʊmən wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈmæn ɪz laɪk ə ˈfɪʃ wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈbaɪsɪkl̩/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ə ˈwʊmən wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈmæn ɪz laɪk ə ˈfɪʃ wɪðˌaʊt ə ˈbaɪˌsɪkəl/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "沒有男人的女人就像沒有自行車的魚"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "méiyǒu nánren de nǚrén jiùxiàng méiyǒu zìxíngchē de yú",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "没有男人的女人就像没有自行车的鱼"
},
{
"code": "wuu",
"lang": "Wu Chinese",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "嘸沒男人個女人赛过嘸沒腳踏車個魚"
},
{
"code": "wuu",
"lang": "Wu Chinese",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "呒没男人个女人赛过呒没脚踏车个鱼"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "een vrouw zonder man is als een vis zonder fiets"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "nainen ilman miestä on kuin kala ilman polkupyörää"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "une femme sans homme est comme un poisson sans bicyclette"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "eine Frau ohne Mann ist wie ein Fisch ohne Fahrrad"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"note": "literal translation if quoting the English phrase",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "una donna senza un uomo è come un pesce senza bicicletta"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "en kvinne uten mann er som en fisk uten sykkel"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "kobieta tak potrzebuje mężczyzny, jak ryba potrzebuje roweru"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "uma mulher sem um homem é como um peixe sem uma bicicleta"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "o femeie fără bărbat este ca un pește fără bicicletă"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "женщина без мужчины — всё равно что рыба без велосипеда (ženščina bez mužčiny — vsjo ravno što ryba bez velosipeda)",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "женщина без мужчины — всё равно что рыбка без зонтика (ženščina bez mužčiny — vsjo ravno što rybka bez zontika)",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life"
},
{
"code": "sh",
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "žena bez muškarca je kao riba bez bicikla"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "una mujer sin un hombre es como un pez sin bicicleta"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life",
"word": "en kvinna utan en man är som en fisk utan en cykel"
}
],
"word": "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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