masculinus

Forms

masculīnus (feminine masculīna, neuter masculīnum, comparative masculīnior, superlative masculīnissimus, adverb masculīnē or masculīniter); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin masculus (“male”) + -īnus.^[2][3][1] The TLL compares fēminīnus (“female”),^[3] and Etymonline suggests the diminutive base may have been chosen to pair with it.^[4] The base is a diminutive of mās (“male”),^[1][4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *mās- and Proto-Indo-European *meh2-(ō̆)s.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD first record it in Varro, quoted by Augustine: the earth has a twofold power, masculine because it produces seed and feminine because it receives and nourishes it.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is not in Cicero and perhaps not before Augustus.^[6] It was used of the male sex in people, animals and plants (Pliny the Elder has round turnips “of the male sex”),^[6] of male genitals in Phaedrus,^[3][6] and in grammar of the masculine gender, as in Quintilian and in Caesellius Vindex, quoted by Gellius, who says that Ennius made cor masculine.^[2][6] A variant reading in Quintilian gives it the sense “manly”.^[6]

In Late Latin the Vulgate has imāginēs masculīnās, images of males,^[3] and Pomponius, in the Digest, speaks of children of the masculine and feminine sex.^[3] English took it through Old French as masculine, first for the grammatical gender.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro, quoted by Augustine, speaks of the masculine power of the earth.^[2][7]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of the male organs.^[3][7]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it for the masculine gender.^[2][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of images of males.^[3][7]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it, through Old French, as masculine.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the male sex, masculine (of people, animals and plants).^[2][6]
2. Manly, worthy of a man.^[6][1]
3. (grammar) Of the masculine gender.^[2][6]

Word family

• masculīnē
• masculīniter

Related words

• mās
• masculēscō
• masculētum
• masculus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de