I grew up with _fiş_ and _priz_. Presumably, they are words that were borrowed in to Turkish from French. To this day, I cannot remember which is which and I do not know the original French spellings. According to Google translate, _fiş_ is "prise de courant" so what the heck is _priz_ then?

Anyway, the point is, "male" and "female" made immediate sense. "plug" and "socket" don't seem to be exact analogues. When I think of a socket, I think more of things that are more permanent things like wall sockets or sockets on actual computers etc. Is there any reason to assume that all such things will always be receptacles? When I look at this picture[1], I see a set of "female" sockets next to a "male" socket using the disfavored terminology. As English is my second language, I do not know whether I should refer to the one that is "male" as a plug.

Another aversion I have to the general tendency to changing language by decree is the fact that I experienced the linguistic impoverishment visited upon the Turkish language as a result of the 20th century effort to remove words of Arabic and Farsi origin and somehow arrive at a "pure" language. Such efforts rarely lead to where their designers want them to go.

[1]: https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/08/inlet...