gender

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈdʒen.də/, US /ˈdʒen.dɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gendre,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French gendre (“kind, species; character; gender”), genre (modern genre),^[4][5] from the stem of Latin genus (“race, stock, family; kind; species; sex”) (genitive generis),^[4][5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).^[4] The d is a sound added in Old French.^[4] Latin genus also translated Aristotle's grammatical term genos.^[4] It is related to genus, genre, generate and engender.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kind, sort, class: about 1300 in Etymonline,^[4] the 14th century in the OED,^[8] 1378 in Barnhart.^[5] The grammatical class of nouns and pronouns is probably from about 1350 in Barnhart,^[5] the late 14th century in Etymonline,^[4] before 1380 in the OED.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “sex”, male or female, is from the early 15th century,^[4] 1387–8 in the OED, which in 1989 marked it as now only jocular.^[8] As sex took on erotic associations in the 20th century, gender became the usual word for the sex of a human being, at first thought colloquial or humorous;^[4] later, especially in feminist writing, it referred to social as much as biological attributes, a sense first attested in 1963.^[4][8] The sense “kind, sort” died out by the late 18th century.^[3] Gender-bender is from 1977, popularized from 1980 with reference to David Bowie.^[4] Word Origins notes transgender from the 1970s and cisgender, on its model, since the 1990s.^[7] Jespersen in 1924 defined grammatical gender by the Indo-European division into masculine, feminine and neuter.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – kind, sort.^[4]
• c. 1350 – grammatical gender.^[5]
• 1387–8 – sex.^[8]
• c. 1450 – of verbs.^[5]
• 1963 – social gender.^[4][8]
• 1970s – transgender.^[7]
• 1977 – gender-bender.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. In grammar, a class of nouns, pronouns and adjectives, such as masculine, feminine and neuter, that determines agreement with other words.
2. The condition of being male or female; sex.
3. The behavioural, cultural or psychological traits typically associated with one sex, or a person's identity in this respect.

Word family

• genderless

Related words

• genus
• genre
• generate
• engender
• general
• kin

Usage notes

A separate verb gender, “to beget, engender”, is from Old French gendrer, from Latin generāre, from the 14th century, and is now archaic.^[2][3][4] In Lincolnshire and Worcestershire dialect gender was frog spawn, and in Yorkshire a verb meaning to vibrate, rattle or quiver.^[9] The Javanese musical instrument gendèr is a different word.^[2]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)