género

Forms

género m (plural géneros)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin genus (“birth, lineage; kind, sort”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Spanish form is built on the stem of the Latin oblique cases: Corominas suggests it started from the much-used plural, ending in ⟨-era⟩, while Wiktionary posits a regularised accusative *generum.^[2][1]

The Latin noun belongs with gignō (“to beget”).^[2][3][5] It continues Proto-Italic *genos, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os (“race, kind”), of the root *ǵenh₁- (“to produce, beget”); its relatives include Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”) and the English word kin.^[1] The genitive ⟨generis⟩ shows the Latin change of /s/ between vowels to /r/.^[1]

The Latin noun lived on as a popular word only in Catalan gens and Old French giens, which became words for “(not) at all” through negative phrases of the type “not a kind of”.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DICCA-XV and the DTME date the first record to 1423, and DICCA-XV also reports a CORDE record of 1350;^[8][9] Corominas has it from about 1440, in A. Torre.^{[10][11][2][3]} The earliest CDH hits are the Latin word in 13th-century charters (si aliquis ex genere nostro “if anyone of our family”) and ianero “January”, not this word.^[12] Nebrija gives it in two senses, “lineage” and “kind of anything”, both Latin genus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first records of the Americas are in phrases like todo xénero de ganados “all kinds of livestock” (Puerto Rico, 1519).^[13] Autoridades defined género as what is common to many things that differ in species, and also as “way, manner” and as “kind, species”.^[14] The Academy added in 1817 the grammatical sense, the three kinds of oratory and the sense “merchandise”, of cloth as well as drugs; in 1869 it added “all kinds of cloth” and the pintor de género, the painter of everyday scenes.^[8][9] Domínguez (1846–1847) gave the sense of natural history.^[15] In Ecuador género means above all cloth.^[16]

The current DLE adds a sense the 2001 edition lacked: the group to which human beings of each sex belong, seen from a sociocultural rather than a purely biological point of view.^[4][17] The DTME notes that some consider the senses “sexual role” and “sexual identity” improper.^[11]

Timeline

• 1423 – the first record in DICCA-XV and the DTME.^[10][11]
• c. 1440 – the first record in Corominas, in A. Torre.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives género for “lineage” and for “kind of anything”.^[2]
• 1519 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as what is common to things that differ in species.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the senses of grammar, rhetoric and trade.^[8]
• 1846–1847 – Domínguez gives the sense of natural history.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy adds “cloth” and genre painting.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A set of beings that share one or more characteristics, as in el género humano.^[4][1]
2. kind, sort, type: Nunca leo libros de ese género.^[4][18][1]
3. gender: the group to which people of each sex belong, seen socioculturally, as in violencia de género.^[4][1]
4. (commerce) Goods, merchandise.^[4][18][1]
5. cloth, fabric.^[4][18][1]
6. (arts) A genre: each of the classes into which works are grouped by form and content.^[4][1]
7. (biology) A genus: a taxon grouping related species.^[4][1]
8. (grammar) Grammatical gender, the category shown by agreement in nouns and pronouns.^[4][1]

Related words

• generación
• gente
• Latin genus

Usage notes

Género chico is the name of short musical stage works, usually on popular themes.^[4] Román notes the use of género de with a negative for “no … at all”, with examples from Cervantes.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 143
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. género
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. género
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 468
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. gens
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 441
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 384
10. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. género
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. género
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. género
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. género
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, s.v. género
15. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 865
16. ^ Lemos R., Gustavo (1920–1922), Semántica o ensayo de lexicografía ecuatoriana, Guayaquil, with Suplemento (1922), p. 1, 103
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. género
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. género
19. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 16