Chapter 89

ON GENDER.

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

In the Latin language we have the words _taurus_ = _bull_, and _vacca_ = _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._ | _Male._ _Female._ | Bachelor Spinster. | Horse Mare. Boar Sow. | Ram Ewe. Boy Girl. | Son Daughter. Brother Sister. | Uncle Aunt. Buck Doe. | 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.

§ 181. 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.

§ 182. 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._ | _Male._ _Female._ | Actor Actress. | Lion Lioness. Arbiter Arbitress. | Peer Peeress. Baron Baroness. | Poet Poetess. Benefactor Benefactress. | Sorcerer Sorceress. Count Countess. | Songster Songstress. Duke Duchess. | Tiger Tigress.

§ 183. This, however, in strict grammatical language, is an approach to gender rather than _gender_ itself; the difference from true grammatical gender being 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 those signs are the same in each word, the difference of meaning (or sex) not affecting them.

§ 184. 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.

§ 185. 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_.

§ 186. 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 of the 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; in other words, _sex_ is a natural distinction, _gender_ a grammatical one.

§ 187. In § 185 it is written, 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_."--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 _even in English_.

The pronoun _him_, from the Anglo-Saxon and English _he_, as compared with the pronoun _her_, from the Anglo-Saxon _heó_, is affected in its declension by the difference of sex, and is a true, though fragmentary, specimen of 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 _hoc_ and _hic_, and the forms _hoc_ and _hic_ are as much genders as _bonum_ and _bonus_.

§ 188. The formation of the neuter gender by the addition of -t, in words like _wha-t_, _i-t_, and _tha-t_, occurs in other languages. The -t in _tha-t_ is the -d in _istu-d_, Latin, and the -t in _ta-t_, Sanskrit.

§ 189. In the Moeso-Gothic and Scandinavian, the _adjectives_ form the neuters in -t, in Old High German in -z (ts), and in Modem German in -s (derived from -z)--Moeso-Gothic, _blind-ata_; Icel., _blind-t_; Old High German, _plint-ez_, M. G. _blind-es_ = _cæc-um_.

_Caution._--_Which_, is _not_ the neuter of _who_.

§ 190. 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 every thing _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.

§ 191. 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 in the last section; still less will it account for the circumstance of the Germans reversing the gender, and making the _sun_ feminine, and the _moon_ masculine.

§ 192. Let there be a period in the history of a language 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 time when dead things are personified, and when there is a _mythology_. Let an object like the _sun_ be deemed a _male_, and an object like the _moon_, a _female_, deity. We may then understand the origin of certain genders.

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 out of an Icelandic mythological work, viz., the prose Edda. In the classical languages, however, _Phoebus_ 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 all these words there is no change of form, the consideration of them is a point of rhetoric, rather than of etymology.

§ 193. 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, is current in German, as the equivalent to -ess, and as a feminine affix (_freund_ = _a friend_; _freundinn_ = _a female friend_). In English it occurs only in a fragmentary form;--e.g., in _vixen_, a true feminine derivative from _fox_ = _füchsinn_, German.

_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.

_Caution._--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_ } { Sangëstre, _a female singer_. Bäcere, _a male baker_ } were { Bacestre, _a female baker_. Fiðelere, _a male fiddler_ } opposed { Fiðelstre, _a female fiddler_. Vebbere, _a male weaver_ } to { 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_; _baxster_ = _a baking-woman_; _waschster_ = _a washerwoman_. 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 _deaconness_ 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. _Goose, gander_.--One peculiarity in this pair of words has already been indicated. In the older forms of the word _goose_, such as [Greek: chên], 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 [Greek: odous], [Greek: odontos], 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 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.

10. 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_.

11. _Peacock_, _peahen_.--In these compounds, it is not the word _pea_ that is rendered masculine or feminine by the addition of _cock_ and _hen_, but it is the words _cock_ and _hen_ that are modified by prefixing _pea_.

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