Etymologically
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masculinus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [mas.kʊˈliː.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [mas.kuˈliː.nus][1]

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

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