sēdēs ([476]); femur, iecur ([489]); vās, mēnsis ([492]); vīrus, volgus ([493]); iter, nix, senex, &c. ([500]); vīs ([518]); caedēs ([523]); famēs, plēbēs ([524]); domus ([594]); angiportus, &c. ([595]). Many nouns have a consonant stem in the singular, and an -i- stem in the plural: see [516]; most substantives in -iē- or -tiē- have a collateral form in -iā- or -tiā- ([604]). Some adjectives have two different stems: as, hilarus, hilara, hilarum, and hilaris, hilare; exanimus and exanimis.
[GENDER.]
[402]. There are two genders, Masculine and Feminine. Masculine and feminine nouns are called Gender nouns. Nouns without gender are called Neuter.
[403]. Gender is, properly speaking, the distinction of sex. In Latin, a great many things without life have gender in grammar, and are masculine or feminine.
[404]. Some classes of substantives may be brought under general heads of signification, as below, like the names of rivers and winds ([405]), which are usually of the masculine gender, or of plants ([407]), which are usually of the feminine. When the gender cannot be determined thus, it must be learned from the special rules for the several stems and their nominatives.
[GENDER OF SOME CLASSES OF SUBSTANTIVES.]
MASCULINES.
[405]. Names of male beings, rivers, winds, and mountains, are masculine: as,
Caesar, Gāius, Sūlla, men’s names; pater, father; erus, master; scrība, scrivener; Tiberis, the Tiber; Aquilō, a Norther; Lūcrētilis, Mt. Lucretilis.
[406]. The river names: Allia, Dūria, Sagra, Lēthē, and Styx are feminine. Also the mountain names Alpēs, plural, the Alps, and some Greek names of mountains in -a or -ē: as, Aetna, Mt. Etna; Rhodopē, a Thracian range. A few are neuter, as Sōracte.