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The FEMININE GENDER denotes the female sex; as, A woman,

a girl.

The NEUTER GENDER denotes the absence of sex; as, A chair, a table.

Gender, in the English language, is expressed,

I. By DIFFERENCE OF TERMINATION.

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This termination of ess has been borrowed from the French esse and ice, which they took from the Latin issa and ix: Abbatissa, Latin; abbasse, Old English; abbess, English. So, Actrix, actrice, actress. These terminations are all of Norman descent, unknown to the ancient Saxons. The original of this termination may be run up to the Greek feminine termination -i, -10σa: проýris, Latin prophetissa, French prophetisse, Old English prophetesse, modern prophetess.

In donna there is the Spanish, in heroine the Greek, in landgravine the German, in signora the Italian, in Augusta the Latin form.

In some cases there is simply an addition to the masculine, as prophet, prophetess. In other cases there is a change of some letter or letters from the masculine, as porter, portress.

II. BY DISTINCT WORDS, namely, by those that have no etymological relation to each other.

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§ 246. The names of males are masculine; the names of females, feminine; as, John, Mary.

The masculine and the feminine pronouns express the gender; as, "Call the witness-him who first gave his testimony;" "I asked the parent to restrain her child."

1. Some words have the same termination for both masculine and feminine. These are said to be of the common gender; as, Parent, guardian, cousin, student, botanist, witness, neighbor, servant, friend.

2. Some words are used only in the feminine; as, Laundress, seamstress, brunette, dowager, jointress, mantua-maker, mil. liner, shrew, virago, syren, amazon, vixen, spinster.

3. Some masculine words are, by extension, applied to the whole species; as, Man, to denote the human race, females as well as males. Some feminine words are, in like manner, used for the whole species; as, Goose, duck.

4. The words Infant, child, involve so little of the idea of intelligence and of personality in them, and the sex being so often unknown to the speaker, that they are not unfrequently used in the neuter gender; as, "The infant raised its loving hands to the cheek of its mother;" "the child clung to the neck of its mother."

5. The masculine term has the general meaning expressing both male and female, and is always employed when the office, occupation, or profession, and not the sex of the individual, is chiefly to be expressed. The feminine term is used in those

cases only when discriminations of sex are indispensably necessary. This is illustrated by the following examples: If I say "The poets of the age are distinguished more by correctness of taste than by sublimity of conception," I clearly include in the term poet both male and female writers of poetry. If I say "She is the best poetess of the country," I assign her the superiority over those of her own sex. If I say "She is the best poet of the country," I pronounce her superior to all other writers of poetry, both male and female.

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§ 247. There are, strictly speaking, but two sexes; yet, for convenience, the neuter (neither of the two) is classed with the genders. In this distribution the English language follows the order of nature, and is philosophically correct. In the Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon, the gender is determined by the termination. In the French, the Italian, the Portuguese, and the Hebrew, all nouns are either masculine or feminine.

As sex is a natural distinction, and as gender is a grammati cal one, we find they do not exactly coincide with each other. Thus, gladius, a sword, is of the masculine gender in Latin; and hasta, a lance, is of the feminine gender. In German, weib, a woman, is neuter. Languages which form the genders. of nouns on terminations are full of inconsistencies, laying down rules apparently for the purpose of nullifying them by numerous exceptions. As gender in the English language is founded on distinction of sex, all objects not male and female are, in history, in philosophy, in common conversation, spoken of as of the neuter gender.

ENGLISH GENDER, POETIC.

gen

§ 248. In those languages which form the distinction of der on terminations, inanimate objects are, in plain prose, spoken of as male or female simply upon grammatical grounds. The English language is more animated and poetic, inasmuch as it admits of more frequent personifications. Hence what in the French is prose, is in the English poetry. In animated discourse, in poetry and eloquence, objects are personified, and the masculine or feminine gender is attributed to them on the ground of some artificial association, as in the following examples:

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"Of law, no less can be acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power."-HOOKER, Eccl. Polity, book i., 16.

The classical languages represented love, under the masculine gender, as a playful boy. English poets have followed their ex ample:

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If for his and her, in these passages, you substitute its, or translate them into languages in which gender is formed by termination, you destroy the images, and reduce poetry and eloquence to mere prose and common discourse.

GROUNDS FOR A CHOICE OF GENDER IN PERSONIFI

CATION.

§ 249. The current statement is, that such substantives as were conspicuous for the attributes of imparting or communicating, which were by nature active, strong, and efficacious, were considered as masculine.

On the contrary, such were considered as feminine as were conspicuous for the attributes either of receiving, of containing, or of producing, or which had more of the passive in their nature than of the active, or which were peculiarly beautiful or amiable. Upon these principles, the sun was considered as masculine, the moon as feminine.

Besides this statement, to which there are many exceptions, it should be mentioned that the English language, derived, as it is, from the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon, seems to inherit, to some extent, the habit of both languages in respect to gender, and to retain in individual words the gender of the words from which they were severally derived. Thus natura, in Latin, is feminine; and nature is feminine in English, when personified.

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