māter, mother; rēgīna, queen.
Grammatical Gender.
[15]. Grammatical gender is determined not by sex, but by the general signification of the word, or the ending of its Nominative Singular. By grammatical gender, nouns denoting things or qualities are often Masculine or Feminine, simply by virtue of their signification or the ending of the Nominative Singular. The following are the general principles for determining grammatical gender:—
A. Gender determined by Signification.
1. Names of Rivers, Winds, and Months are Masculine; as,—
Sēquana, Seine; Eurus, east wind; Aprīlis, April.
2. Names of Trees, and such names of Towns and Islands as end in -us, are Feminine; as,—
quercus, oak; Corinthus, Corinth; Rhodus, Rhodes.
Other names of towns and islands follow the gender of their endings (see B, below); as,—
Delphī, n.; Leuctra, n.; Tībur, n.; Carthāgō, f.