NOTE.—There is perhaps this distinction observed: when we speak of a female as an active agent merely, we use the masculine termination, as, "George Eliot is the author of 'Adam Bede;'" but when we speak purposely to denote a distinction from a male, we use the feminine, as, "George Eliot is an eminent authoress."
III. Gender shown by Different Words.
32. In some of these pairs, the feminine and the masculine are entirely different words; others have in their origin the same root. Some of them have an interesting history, and will be noted below:—
- bachelor—maid
- boy—girl
- brother—sister
- drake—duck
- earl—countess
- father—mother
- gander—goose
- hart—roe
- horse—mare
- husband—wife
- king—queen
- lord—lady
- wizard—witch
- nephew—niece
- ram—ewe
- sir—madam
- son—daughter
- uncle—aunt
- bull—cow
- boar—sow
Girl originally meant a child of either sex, and was used for male or female until about the fifteenth century.
Drake is peculiar in that it is formed from a corresponding feminine which is no longer used. It is not connected historically with our word duck, but is derived from ened (duck) and an obsolete suffix rake (king). Three letters of ened have fallen away, leaving our word drake.
Gander and goose were originally from the same root word. Goose has various cognate forms in the languages akin to English (German Gans, Icelandic gás, Danish gaas, etc.). The masculine was formed by adding -a, the old sign of the masculine. This gansa was modified into gan-ra, gand-ra, finally gander; the d being inserted to make pronunciation easy, as in many other words.
Mare, in Old English mere, had the masculine mearh (horse), but this has long been obsolete.
Husband and wife are not connected in origin. Husband is a Scandinavian word (Anglo-Saxon hūsbonda from Icelandic hús-bóndi, probably meaning house dweller); wife was used in Old and Middle English to mean woman in general.
King and queen are said by some (Skeat, among others) to be from the same root word, but the German etymologist Kluge says they are not.