English Grammar: Nouns
Gender Sex
Video: Gender of Nouns
THE GENDER IN COMMON NOUNS DISTINGUISHED BY A
WORD SIGNIFICANT OF SEX.
Common.
|
Masculine. |
Feminine. |
ass
bear
bird
calf
elephant
fox
goat
pig
rabbit
servant
sparrow |
he-ass (jack-ass)
he-bear
cock-bird (male-bird)
bull-calf
bull-elephant (male-elephant)
dog-fox
he-goat
boar-pig
buck-rabbit
man-servant
(male-servant)
cock-sparrow |
she-ass
she-bear
hen-bird (female-bird)
cow-calf
cow-elephant (female-elephant)
bitch-fox
she-goat
sow-pig
doe-rabbit
maid-servant (female-servant)
hen-sparrow. |
DISTINCTION OF SEX INDICATED BY
DISTINCT 'WORDS :-
(Where a common form exists, it is supplied.)
Masculine.
|
Feminine.
|
Common
|
bachelor
boar
boy
bridegroom
brother
buck
hart
stag
bull
bullock, ox, steer
cock
colt
dog
drake
drone
earl
father
gaffer
gander
gentleman
horse, stallion
husband
king
lad
lord
man
monk, friar 7
nephew
papa
ram
sire
sloven
son
uncle
wizard10
|
-
maid, spinster
sow
girl
bride 1
sister
doe
roe
hind
cow
heifer
hen
filly
bitch
duck 2
bee
countess
mother
gammer 3
goose 2
lady
mare
wife
queen
lass 4
lady 5
woman 6
nun
niece 8
momma
ewe
dam 9
slut
daughter
aunt
witch
|
hog, swine, pig
child, youth
sibling
deer
deer
deer
ox, neat
ox, neat
fowl
foal (also colt)
dog, hound
duck
bee
parent
goose
horse
spouse (poet.)
sovereign
man
sheep
child
|
NOTES.-
l The masc. is here formed from the fem.; the suffix groom,
0. E. guma, meaning " man," i.e. " the bride's man."
2 Only in these two words is the fem. form used as common. So
in compounds, eider-duck, wild-duck; solan-goose. Gander and
goose are not strictly distinct words, the masculine being
formed from the feminine.
3 Shortened from grandfather, grandmother.
4 Lass, probably a contraction of lad-ess.
5 Lady, etymologically feminine of lord, by inflexion.
6 Woman, i.e. wife-man (Germ. weib).
7 Friar, i.e. brother.
8 Nephew, niece, from Lat. nepos, neptis, through the French.
9 Only used in speaking of the parentage of animals.
10 Wizard: 0. E. wisa, a wise man: witch, a sorceress.
Note. A few foreign masculines and feminines, occasionally
used in English, may be added: beau, belle; monsieur,
madam, mademoiselle.
Common objects without life are often personified, and
the Nouns denoting them are then treated as masculine or as
feminine. Thus the Sun is usually spoken of as he; and the Moon
(also a ship or a balloon) as she; while the names of the
planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter) are masculine or
feminine according to their sex in mythology.
Moreover in poetry and rhetoric many other inanimate
things and qualities are personified and treated either as
masculine or as feminine. Thus in Collins's " Ode on the
Passions," Fear, Anger, Despair, are masculine; and Hope,
Melancholy, Cheerfulness, feminine. So Heaven, Time, Death,
Summer, Winter, Autumn, are often masculine; and Spring, Poetry,
Sculpture, Astronomy, Art, Nature, feminine.
Note. 1. This usage gives English an advantage over most other
languages in the poetical and rhetorical style: for when nouns
naturally neuter are converted into masculine or feminine, the
personification is more distinctly marked.
-
" A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying glory smiles
O'er the fair times, when many a subject land
Looked to the winged Lion's marble piles
Where Venice sat in state, throned on HER hundred isles."
(Childe Harold, Iv.)
" Freedom, driven from every spot on the Continent, has sought
an asylum in a country which she always chose for her favourite
abode; but the is pursued even here and threatened with
destruction." (Robert Hall.)
Note. 2. In the earliest form of English, as in Latin, Greek,
French, &c., the names of many things without life are
masculine or feminine; as, sunne (sun), fem.', mona, (moon),
masc.; tunge (tongue), fem. These artificial genders would
probably have remained in force till now, had it not been for
the influence of the Norman Conquest; which gave so violent a
shock to the language as to obliterate many of its
characteristic features.
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