Why is it "SPOKESperson", not speakperson or...?

Question:Why is it "spokes"person, not "speak"person or spokenperson...?

Answers:
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (OED), the etymology of "spokesman" is:

"1519, "an interpreter," 1540 in the sense of "person who speaks for another or others." Irregular formation from spoke, past tense of speak (actually a back-formation from spoken). Spokeswoman is from 1654; spokesperson is from 1972. Spokesmodel is attested from 1990."

As OED suggests, the word uses an "irregular formation from spoke," which may suggest that the reason why the word is "spokesperson," is simply because "spokesperson" is an accepted form of the word - that's the way it's been spelled for many years, and that's how it remains.
representative
For starters it should be "spokesman"

I doubt the man part ever even meant male human, the reason why it is "spokes..." probably makes more sense if the PC-police hadn't choped it up.

replacing every "man" with "person" is getting a bit mad, especially in words like "chairman" where "man" is actually short for "manager".

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