gender English · revision 4306

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1300|origins=la genus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈdʒen.də/, US /ˈdʒen.dɚ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|gendre]],^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002) [[bor|fro|gendre|t=kind, species; character; gender]], genre (modern genre),^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1995) from the stem of [[la|genus|t=race, stock, family; kind; species; sex]] (genitive generis),^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Hoad 1986) from [[ine-pro|*ǵenh₁-|alt=*gene-|t=to give birth, beget]].^(Etymonline) The d is a sound added in Old French.^(Etymonline) Latin genus also translated Aristotle's grammatical term genos.^(Etymonline) It is related to [[genus]], [[genre]], [[generate]] and [[engender]].^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Kind, sort, class: about 1300 in Etymonline,^(Etymonline) the 14th century in the OED,^(OED 1989) 1378 in Barnhart.^(Barnhart 1995) The grammatical class of nouns and pronouns is probably from about 1350 in Barnhart,^(Barnhart 1995) the late 14th century in Etymonline,^(Etymonline) before 1380 in the OED.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense “sex”, male or female, is from the early 15th century,^(Etymonline) 1387–8 in the OED, which in 1989 marked it as now only jocular.^(OED 1989) 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;^(Etymonline) later, especially in feminist writing, it referred to social as much as biological attributes, a sense first attested in 1963.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) The sense “kind, sort” died out by the late 18th century.^(SOED 2002) ''Gender-bender'' is from 1977, popularized from 1980 with reference to David Bowie.^(Etymonline) Word Origins notes ''transgender'' from the 1970s and ''cisgender'', on its model, since the 1990s.^(Cresswell 2021) Jespersen in 1924 defined grammatical gender by the Indo-European division into masculine, feminine and neuter.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1300 – kind, sort.^(Etymonline)

+ * c. 1350 – grammatical gender.^(Barnhart 1995)

+ * 1387–8 – sex.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1450 – of verbs.^(Barnhart 1995)

+ * 1963 – social gender.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1970s – ''transgender''.^(Cresswell 2021)

+ * 1977 – ''gender-bender''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # In [[grammar]], a class of nouns, pronouns and adjectives, such as masculine, feminine and neuter, that determines agreement with other words.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # The condition of being male or female; [[sex]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # The behavioural, cultural or psychological traits typically associated with one sex, or a person's identity in this respect.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==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.^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)^(Etymonline) In Lincolnshire and Worcestershire dialect gender was frog spawn, and in Yorkshire a verb meaning to vibrate, rattle or quiver.^(Wright 1898) The Javanese musical instrument gendèr is a different word.^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}