masculine

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English masculin,^[2][3][1] borrowed from Old French masculin (“of the male sex”),^[4][2][5][6] and also directly borrowed from Latin masculīnus (“male; of masculine gender”),^[7][3][4] from masculus (“male, worthy of a man”),^[4][2] a diminutive of mās (“male person, male”),^[4][3][2] a word of unknown origin.^[4][5] The diminutive may have been formed to pair with fēminīnus.^[4] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from the early 14th century for male animals.^[6] The same Latin masculus gave male, through masle, and Spanish macho.^[4][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the masculine grammatical gender: probably about 1350 in Barnhart,^[3] and about 1390, in a legend of St Theodora, in the OED.^[7] The OED notes that Ælfric's Old English Grammar had already used the Latin word for the gender, explaining it as werlic, manly.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The grammatical sense came first;^[3][7] Barnhart has the sense "of men, male" from about 1380 in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,^[3] while the OED dates it to about 1425 in Lydgate, together with the use for objects thought of as male because of some quality such as strength.^[7] From the mid-16th century the word meant having the qualities thought fitting for a man, vigorous or manly.^[7][10] From 1611, in Ben Jonson, it was said of women showing such qualities.^[7] In prosody a masculine rhyme, one ending on a stressed syllable, is recorded from Sidney (before 1586).^[7][10] Johnson (1755) gave "male; not female" as the first sense.^[11] As a noun, the masculine gender or a word of that gender, it dates from about 1450.^[7][4]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – of the masculine grammatical gender.^[3]
• c. 1380 – of men, male, in Chaucer.^[3]
• c. 1425 – male; of a thing regarded as male.^[7]
• c. 1450 – noun, the masculine gender.^[7]
• c. 1550 – manly, vigorous.^[7]
• before 1586 – of a rhyme, ending on a stressed syllable.^[7]
• 1611 – of a woman, mannish.^[7]
• before 1616 – of or consisting of men.^[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Having qualities thought typical of or suitable for a man; manly: a deep, masculine voice.
2. Of a woman, having qualities thought typical of a man; unwomanly.
3. Of or relating to men; male.
4. (grammar) Of the gender to which most nouns for male people and animals belong: In French, ‘livre’ meaning book is masculine.
5. (prosody) Of a rhyme or line ending, falling on a stressed final syllable.

Noun

1. (grammar) The masculine gender, or a word of that gender.

Word family

• masculinely
• masculineness
• masculinity
• hypermasculine
• masculinize
• nonmasculine

Related words

• male
• emasculate
• feminine
• macho

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.