No Man’s Land or Unclaimed Territory?

[PhilB]

The EU have called for non-gendered language, for example:-

“Bureaucrats say 'no man's land' should be substituted with 'unclaimed territory'.”

Surely no man’s land is very much claimed territory - by both sides?

Or did the phrase predate WW1 or previous conflicts?

 

Edited 30 January by PhilB

[Allan1892]

3 hours ago, PhilB said:

“Bureaucrats say 'no man's land' should be substituted with 'unclaimed territory'.”

You couldn't make it up could you. EU civil servants with nothing better to do.

[KernelPanic]

The phrase 'No Man's Land' has been around for centuries. It had a number of different definitions including 'unclaimed territory'. So a gender-neutral term in that wider context seems reasonable. 

The term as used in WW1 however, was anything but gender-neutral. As far as I'm aware there were no female combatants in any of the protagonists armies, only men. So an opinion with my pedant's hat on , is that 'No man's Land' would be technically correct when referring to the ground in between opposing front lines. Other opinions may of course differ from mine.