An English Grammar. James Witt Sewell
mensa (table) is feminine, corpus (body) is neuter; in German, das Messer (knife) is neuter, der Tisch (table) is masculine, die Gabel (fork) is feminine.
The great difference is, that in English the gender follows the meaning of the word, in other languages gender follows the form; that is, in English, gender depends on sex: if a thing spoken of is of the male sex, the name of it is masculine; if of the female sex, the name of it is feminine. Hence:
Definition.
22. Gender is the mode of distinguishing sex by words, or additions to words.
23. It is evident from this that English can have but two genders—masculine and feminine.
Gender nouns. Neuter nouns.
All nouns, then, must be divided into two principal classes—gender nouns, those distinguishing the sex of the object; and neuter nouns, those which do not distinguish sex, or names of things without life, and consequently without sex.
Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all inanimate objects.
Some words either gender or neuter nouns, according to use.
24. Some words may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use. Thus, the word child is neuter in the sentence, "A little child shall lead them," but is masculine in the sentence from Wordsworth—
I have seen
A curious child … applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell.
Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender nouns, as in these sentences:—
Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of a husband, … clapping his burnished wings.—Irving.
Gunpowder … came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head—Id.
Other animals are not distinguished as to sex, but are spoken of as neuter, the sex being of no consequence.
Not a turkey but he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing.—Irving.
He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it.—Lamb.
No "common gender."
25. According to the definition, there can be no such thing as "common gender:" words either distinguish sex (or the sex is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish sex.
If such words as parent, servant, teacher, ruler, relative, cousin, domestic, etc., do not show the sex to which the persons belong, they are neuter words.
26. Put in convenient form, the division of words according to sex, or the lack of it, is—
(MASCULINE: Male beings.
Gender nouns { (FEMININE: Female beings.
Neuter nouns: Names of inanimate things, or of living beings whose sex cannot be determined.
27. The inflections for gender belong, of course, only to masculine and feminine nouns. Forms would be a more accurate word than inflections, since inflection applies only to the case of nouns.
There are three ways to distinguish the genders:—
(1) By prefixing a gender word to another word.
(2) By adding a suffix, generally to a masculine word.
(3) By using a different word for each gender.
I. Gender shown by Prefixes.
Very few of class I.
28. Usually the gender words he and she are prefixed to neuter words; as he-goat—she-goat, cock sparrow—hen sparrow, he-bear—she-bear.
One feminine, woman, puts a prefix before the masculine man. Woman is a short way of writing wifeman.
II. Gender shown by Suffixes.
29. By far the largest number of gender words are those marked by suffixes. In this particular the native endings have been largely supplanted by foreign suffixes.
Native suffixes.
The native suffixes to indicate the feminine were -en and -ster. These remain in vixen and spinster, though both words have lost their original meanings.
The word vixen was once used as the feminine of fox by the Southern-English. For fox they said vox; for from they said vram; and for the older word fat they said vat, as in wine vat. Hence vixen is for fyxen, from the masculine fox.
Spinster is a relic of a large class of words that existed in Old and Middle English,[1] but have now lost their original force as feminines. The old masculine answering to spinster was spinner; but spinster has now no connection with it.
The foreign suffixes are of two kinds:—
Foreign suffixes. Unaltered and little used.
(1) Those belonging to borrowed words, as czarina, señorita, executrix, donna. These are attached to foreign words, and are never used for words recognized as English.
Slightly changed and widely used.
(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the feminine, -ess (French esse, Low Latin issa), the one most used. The corresponding masculine may have the ending -er (-or), but in most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the feminine is formed by adding this termination -ess.
Sometimes the -ess has been added to a word already feminine by the ending -ster; as seam-str-ess, song-str-ess. The ending -ster had then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the words huckster, gamester, trickster, punster.
Ending of masculine not changed.
30. The ending -ess is added to many words without changing the ending of the masculine; as—
baron—baroness
count—countess
lion—lioness
Jew—Jewess
heir—heiress
host—hostess
priest—priestess
giant—giantess
Masculine ending dropped.
The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine -ess is added; as—
abbot—abbess
negro—negress
murderer—murderess
sorcerer—sorceress
Vowel