Bouncers are taking on an unusual opponent - the Oxford English Dictionary.
National Doorwatch, a UK-wide organisation representing more than 6 000 professional doormen, insists the name bouncers is “offensive”.
Chairman Ian Fox claims the term is “demeaning and inappropriate” and has written to the OED in an effort to have it replaced by “door supervisor”.
“A bouncer implies some knuckle-dragging thug as opposed to somebody who is actually doing everything they can in very challenging circumstances to ensure a safe night out,” Fox said on Wednesday.
“The term is anachronistic, inappropriate and downright offensive to the new, modern, highly regulated profession of door supervision.”
A bouncer is defined by the OED as “one engaged to eject undesirable or unruly persons from a saloon, ballroom, etc; a “chucker-out”.
The earliest known use of the term was in the US National Police Gazette in 1865 and the OED has refused to accept it should be deleted from its records.
A spokesman said: “We are not linguistic policemen and our concern is simply the completeness of the historical record.
“If hardly anyone uses ‘bouncer’ we’ll consider marking it as rare - but that’s not the case at the moment.” - Daily Mail