The English Language

by R. G. Latham

CHAPTER II.

ON GENDER.

[§ 271]. The nature of gender is best exhibited by reference to those languages wherein the distinction of gender is most conspicuous. Such a language, amongst others, is the Latin.

How far is there such a thing as gender in the English language? This depends upon the meaning that we attach to the word gender.

In the Latin language, where there are confessedly genders, we have the words taurus, meaning a bull, and vacca, meaning a cow. Here the natural distinction of sex is expressed by wholly different words. With this we have corresponding modes of expression in English: e.g.,

Male. Female. Bachelor Spinster. Boar Sow. Boy Girl. Brother Sister. Buck Doe.	Male. Female. Horse Mare. Ram Ewe. Son Daughter. Uncle Aunt. Father Mother, &c.
Male.	Female.
Bachelor	Spinster.
Boar	Sow.
Boy	Girl.
Brother	Sister.
Buck	Doe.
Male.	Female.
Horse	Mare.
Ram	Ewe.
Son	Daughter.
Uncle	Aunt.
Father	Mother, &c.

The mode, however, of expressing different sexes by wholly different words is not a matter of gender. The words boy and girl bear no etymological relation to each other; neither being derived from the other, nor in any way connected with it.

[§ 272]. Neither are words like cock-sparrow, man-servant, he-goat, &c., as compared with hen-sparrow, maid-servant, she-goat, &c., specimens of gender. Here a difference of sex is indicated by the addition of a fresh term, from which is formed a compound word.

[§ 273]. In the Latin words genitrix=a mother, and genitor=a father, we have a nearer approach to gender. Here the difference of sex is expressed by a difference of termination;

the words genitor and genitrix being in a true etymological relation, i. e., either derived from each other, or from some common source. With this we have, in English corresponding modes of expression: e. g.,

Male. Female. Actor Actress. Arbiter Arbitress. Baron Baroness. Benefactor Benefactress. Count Countess. Duke Duchess.	Male. Female. Lion Lioness. Peer Peeress. Poet Poetess. Sorcerer Sorceress. Songster Songstress. Tiger Tigress.
Male.	Female.
Actor	Actress.
Arbiter	Arbitress.
Baron	Baroness.
Benefactor	Benefactress.
Count	Countess.
Duke	Duchess.
Male.	Female.
Lion	Lioness.
Peer	Peeress.
Poet	Poetess.
Sorcerer	Sorceress.
Songster	Songstress.
Tiger	Tigress.

This, however, in strict grammatical language, is an approach to gender rather than gender itself. Its difference from true grammatical gender is as follows:—

Let the Latin words genitor and genitrix be declined:—

Sing.	Nom.	Genitor	Genitrix.
	Gen.	Genitor-is	Genitric-is.
	Dat.	Genitor-i	Genitric-i.
	Acc.	Genitor-em	Genitric-em.
	Voc.	Genitor	Genitrix.
Plur.	Nom.	Genitor-es	Genitric-es.
	Gen.	Genitor-um	Genitric-um.
	Dat.	Genitor-ibus	Genitric-ibus.
	Acc.	Genitor-es	Genitric-es.
	Voc.	Genitor-es	Genitric-es.

The syllables in italics are the signs of the cases and numbers. Now these signs are the same in each word, the difference of meaning (or sex) not affecting them.

[§ 274]. Contrast, however, with the words genitor and genitrix the words domina=a mistress, and dominus=a master.

Sing.	Nom.	Domin-a	Domin-us.
	Gen.	Domin-æ	Domin-i.
	Dat.	Domin-æ	Domin-o.
	Acc.	Domin-am	Domin-um.
	Voc.	Domin-a	Domin-e.
Plur.	Nom.	Domin-æ	Domin-i.
	Gen.	Domin-arum	Domin-orum.
	Dat.	Domin-abus	Domin-is.
	Acc.	Domin-as	Domin-os.
	Voc.	Domin-æ	Domin-i.

Here the letters in italics, or the signs of the cases and numbers, are different, the difference being brought about by the difference of gender. Now it is very evident that, if genitrix be a specimen of gender, domina is something more.

As terms, to be useful, must be limited, it may be laid down, as a sort of definition, that there is no gender where there is no affection of the declension: consequently, that, although we have, in English, words corresponding to genitrix and genitor, we have no true genders until we find words corresponding to dominus and domina.

[§ 275]. The second element in the notion of gender, although I will not venture to call it an essential one, is the following:—In the words domina and dominus, mistress and master, there is a natural distinction of sex; the one being masculine, or male, the other feminine, or female. In the words sword and lance there is no natural distinction of sex. Notwithstanding this, the word hasta, in Latin, is as much a feminine gender as domina, whilst gladius=a sword is, like dominus, a masculine noun. From this we see that, in languages wherein there are true genders, a fictitious or conventional sex is attributed even to inanimate objects. Sex is a natural distinction, gender a grammatical one.

[§ 276]. "Although we have, in English, words corresponding to genitrix and genitor, we have no true genders until we find words corresponding to dominus and domina."—The sentence was intentionally worded with caution. Words like dominus and domina, that is, words where the declension is affected by the sex, are to be found.

The pronoun him, from the Anglo-Saxon and English he, as compared with the pronoun her, from the Anglo-Saxon heò, is affected in its declension by the difference of sex, and is a true, though fragmentary, specimen of gender: for be it observed, that as both words are in the same case and number, the difference in form must be referred to a difference of sex expressed by gender. The same is the case with the form his as compared with her.

The pronoun it (originally hit), as compared with he, is a specimen of gender.

The relative what, as compared with the masculine who, is a specimen of gender.

The forms it (for hit) and he are as much genders as hic and hæc, and the forms hic and hæc are as much genders as dominus and domina.

[§ 277]. The formation of the neuter gender by the addition of -t, in words like wha-t, i-t, and tha-t, occurs in other Indo-European languages. The -t in tha-t is the -d in istu-d, Latin, and the -t in ta-t, Sanskrit. Except, however, in the Gothic tongues, the inflection -t is confined to the pronouns. In the Gothic this is not the case. Throughout all those languages where there is a neuter form for adjectives at all, that form is either -t, or a sound derived from it:—Mœso-Gothic, blind-ata; Old High German, plint-ez; Icelandic, blind-t; German, blind-es=blind, cæc-um.—See Bopp's Comparative Grammar, Eastwick and Wilson's translation, p. 171.

Which, as seen below, is not the neuter of who.

[§ 278]. Just as there are in English fragments of a gender modifying the declension, so are there, also, fragments of the second element of gender; viz., the attribution of sex to objects naturally destitute of it. The sun in his glory, the moon in her wane, are examples of this. A sailor calls his ship she. A husbandman, according to Mr. Cobbett, does the same with his plough and working implements:—"In speaking of a ship we say she and her. And you know that our country-folks in Hampshire call almost everything he or she. It is curious to observe that country labourers give the feminine appellation to those things only which are more closely identified with themselves, and by the qualities or conditions of which their own efforts, and their character as workmen, are affected. The mower calls his scythe a she, the ploughman calls his plough a she; but a prong, or a shovel, or a harrow, which passes promiscuously from hand to hand, and which is appropriated to no particular labourer, is called a he."—English Grammar, Letter V.

Now, although Mr. Cobbett's statements may account for a sailor calling his ship she, they will not account for the custom of giving to the sun a masculine, and to the moon a

feminine, pronoun, as is done in the expressions quoted at the head of this section; still less will it account for the circumstance of the Germans reversing the gender, and making the sun feminine, and the moon masculine.

Let there be a period in the history of a nation wherein the sun and moon are dealt with, not as inanimate masses of matter, but as animated divinities. Let there, in other words, be a period in the history of a nation wherein dead things are personified, and wherein there is a mythology. Let an object like the sun be deemed a male, and an object like the moon a female, deity.

The Germans say the sun in her glory; the moon in his wane. This difference between the usage of the two languages, like so many others, is explained by the influence of the classical languages upon the English.—"Mundilfori had two children; a son, Mâni (Moon), and a daughter, Sôl (Sun)."—Such is an extract (taken second-hand from Grimm, vol. iii. p. 349) out of an Icelandic mythological work, viz., the prose Edda. In the classical languages, however, Phœbus and Sol are masculine, and Luna and Diana feminine. Hence it is that, although in Anglo-Saxon and Old-Saxon the sun is feminine, it is in English masculine.

Philosophy, charity, &c., or the names of abstract qualities personified, take a conventional sex, and are feminine from their being feminine in Latin.

As in these words there is no change of form, the consideration of them is a point of rhetoric, rather than of etymology.

Upon phrases like Cock Robin, Robin Redbreast, Jenny Wren, expressive of sex, much information may be collected from Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik, vol. iii. p. 359.

[§ 279]. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to miscellaneous remarks upon the true and apparent genders of the English language.

1. With the false genders like baron, baroness, it is a general rule that the feminine form is derived from the masculine, and not the masculine from the feminine; as peer, peeress. The words widower, gander, and drake are exceptions. For

the word wizard, from witch, see the section on augmentative forms.

2. The termination -ess, in which so large a portion of our feminine substantives terminate, is not of Saxon but of classical origin, being derived from the termination -ix, genitrix.

3. The words shepherdess, huntress, and hostess are faulty; the radical part of the word being Germanic, and the secondary part classical: indeed, in strict English grammar, the termination -ess has no place at all. It is a classic, not a Gothic, element.

4. The termination -inn, so current in German, as the equivalent to -ess, and as a feminine affix (freund=a friend; freundinn=a female friend), is found only in one or two words in English.

There were five carlins in the south

That fell upon a scheme,

To send a lad to London town

To bring them tidings hame.

Burns.

Carlin means an old woman: Icelandic, kerling; Sw., käring; Dan. kælling. Root, carl.

Vixen is a true feminine derivative from fox. German, füchsinn.

Bruin=the bear, may be either a female form, as in Old High German përo=a he-bear, pirinn=a she-bear, or it may be the Norse form björn=a bear, male or female.

Words like margravine and landgravine prove nothing, being scarcely naturalised.

5. The termination -str, as in webster, songster, and baxter, was originally a feminine affix. Thus, in Anglo-Saxon,

Sangere, a male singer		were opposed to		Sangëstre, a female singer.
Bäcere, a male baker				Bacestre, a female baker.
Fiðelere, a male fiddler				Fiðelstre, a female fiddler.
Vebbere, a male weaver				Vëbbëstre, a female weaver.
Rædere, a male reader				Rædestre, a female reader.
Seamere, a male seamer				Seamestre, a female seamer.

The same is the case in the present Dutch of Holland: e.g., spookster=a female fortune-teller; bakster=a

baking-woman; waschster=a washerwoman. (Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, iii. p. 339.) The word spinster still retains its original feminine force.

6. The words songstress and seamstress, besides being, as far as concerns the intermixture of languages, in the predicament of shepherdess, have, moreover, a double feminine termination; 1st. -str, of Germanic, 2nd. -ess, of classical, origin.

7. In the word heroine we have a Greek termination, just as -ix is a Latin, and -inn a German one. It must not, however, be considered as derived from hero, by any process of the English language, but be dealt with as a separate importation from the Greek language.

8. The form deaconess is not wholly unexceptionable; since the termination -ess is of Latin, the root deacon of Greek origin: this Greek origin being rendered all the more conspicuous by the spelling, deacon (from diaconos), as compared with the Latin decanus.

9. The circumstance of prince ending in the sound of s, works a change in the accent of the word. As s is the final letter, it is necessary, in forming the plural number, and the genitive case, to add, not the simple letter s, as in peers, priests, &c., but the syllable -es. This makes the plural number and genitive case the same as the feminine form. Hence the feminine form is accented princéss, while peéress, príestess, &c., carry the accent on the first syllable. Princéss is remarkable as being the only word in English where the accent lies on the subordinate syllable.

10. It is uncertain whether kit, as compared with cat, be a feminine form or a diminutive form; in other words, whether it mean a female cat or a young cat.—See the Chapter on the Diminutives.

11. Goose, gander.—One peculiarity in this pair of words has already been indicated. In the older forms of the word goose, such as χὴν, Greek; anser, Latin; gans, German, as well as in the derived form gander, we have the proofs that, originally, there belonged to the word the sound of the letter n. In the forms ὀδοὺς, ὀδόντος, Greek; dens, dentis, Latin; zahn,

German; tooth, English, we find the analogy that accounts for the ejection of the n, and the lengthening of the vowel preceding. With respect, however, to the d in gander, it is not easy to say whether it is inserted in one word or omitted in the other. Neither can we give the precise power of the -er. The following forms (taken from Grimm, iii. p. 341) occur in the different Gothic dialects. Gans, fem.; ganazzo, masc., Old High German—gôs, f.; gandra, m., Anglo-Saxon—gâs, Icelandic, f.; gaas, Danish, f.; gassi, Icelandic, m.; gasse, Danish, m.—ganser, ganserer, gansart, gänserich, gander, masculine forms in different New German dialects.

12. Observe, the form gänserich has a masculine termination. The word täuberich, in provincial New German, has the same form and the same power. It denotes a male dove; taube, in German, signifying a dove. In gänserich and täuberich, we find preserved the termination -rich (or -rik), with a masculine power. Of this termination we have a remnant, in English, preserved in the curious word drake. To duck the word drake has no etymological relation whatsoever. It is derived from a word with which it has but one letter in common; viz. the Latin anas=a duck. Of this the root is anat-, as seen in the genitive case anatis. In Old High German we find the form anetrekho=a drake; in provincial New High German there is enterich and äntrecht, from whence come the English and Low German form drake. (Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, iii. p. 341.)

13. Peacock, peahen, bridegroom.—In these compounds, it is not the words pea and bride that are rendered masculine or feminine by the addition of cock, hen, and groom, but it is the words cock, hen, and groom that are modified by prefixing pea and bride. For an appreciation of this distinction, see the Chapter on Composition.

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