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§ 230. Generic Names of Human Beings.

a. Most appellatives which for any reason are not often used except in reference to the male sex, retain the masculine gender and masculine form, when accidentally employed in connection with the female sex. Such are peintre, auteur, poète, professeur, orateur, sculpteur, architecte, apothicaire, athlète, artiste, apôtre, autocrate, athée, subalterne, soldat, employé, etc., etc.

Elle fut sa nourrice, elle devient son guide. LEGOUVÉ. Hypathie enseignait elle-même la doctrine d'Aristote et de Platon; on l'appelait le philosophe. CHATEAUBRIAND.

With a comic or bad meaning the feminine is sometimes found (compare § 229. a):

Je crois que la peintresse ne vous a pas flatté: mais je vous vois déjà de la main d'un autre peintre, duquel je n'oserais dire J. J. ROUSSEAU.

autant.

B. Most substantives, on assuming the idea of sex, retain the gender of the substantive of like meaning without sex, from which they are derived; thus, from

la vigie, look out (naval)

la sentinelle, sentry

la vedette, mounted sentry

la recrue, recruiting

la basse, bass (part)

la pratique, custom
une victime (= sacrifice)

une dupe (=bird easily cheated)
une pécore (= animal)

la vigie, look-out man

la sentinelle, sentinel

la vedette, mounted sentinel la recrue, recruit

la basse, bass (man)

la pratique, customer
une victime (man, etc.)
une dupe (man, etc.)
une pécore stupid man, etc.

y. Some change the gender;* thus we have from

une enseigne, ensign

la trompette, trumpet

la garde, watch

la critique, criticism

la foudre, thunder

la statuaire, statuary (art)
la fourbe, cheating

une aide, help

un enseigne, ensign

le trompette, trumpeter
le garde, watchman
le critique, critic

le foudre, thunderbolt (fig.)
le statuaire, statuary (artist)
le fourbe, cheat

un aide, assistant

To this list may be added paillasse: paillasse, from root paille (straw), means a mattress stuffed with straw.

Hence the cover

ing itself, or 'ticking.' From this we have un paillasse, a clown, a man dressed out in toile à paillasse.

*Analogous to this change of gender is that seen in such words as personne, chose, gens, couple. (See § 237.)

d. In a few words the derivation is reversed, but the gender changes as before. The name of the living object has given us the name of the thing; thus, from

une masque, ugly woman, we have un masque, mask

un cravate, Croatian,

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une cravate, a cravat
une pantomime, pantomime

Both

e. Some words of like form have a different origin. nouns are perfectly regular. The gender of the living object follows the sex; the gender of the inanimate object follows sometimes the French ending, sometimes the etymology :*

la page, page or leaf

la mousse, moss

la barde, bard (armour) +

la barbe, beard

la coche, sow

le page, the page (boy)

le mousse, the cabin-boy
le barde, bard

le barbe, Barbary horse
le coche, coach

§ 231. Generic or Class Names of Animals.

a. A large number of quadrupeds and birds (mostly those not domesticated), of fishes, reptiles, and insects, have only a generic name in which the idea of sex is ignored. Such nouns, with but few exceptions, consistently follow, like names of inanimate objects, the rule of e mute (§ 232).

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* It is usual to give all the above nouns of two genders in the same list with such words as le crêpe and la crêpe, etc., with which they have no affinity whatever. For these, see § 233.

Whence la barde, a thin piece of bacon.
The Epicana of the Latin Grammars.

The etymology in most of these words has overruled the French ending: dromadaire, dromadarius; buffle, bubulus; cygne, cygnus; crocodile, crocodilus; crabe, carabus; fourmi, formica. Merle, merula, was rightly feminine in Old French, according to etymology and French ending. Souris is masculine in some patois, as in Latin soricem. Perdicem, perdrix, is both masculine and feminine in Latin. Renne is of Germanic origin. To this list may be added ange, angelus, monk-fish, which, however, is sometimes given feminine in dictionaries.

B. Sex must be expressed, if necessary, by 'male' or 'female;' as, un cygne femelle; une perdrix mâle. Comp., English, a he-goat, a she-goat; a buck-rabbit, a e-rabbit; a ewe-lamb; a cock-sparrow, a hen-sparrow, etc. So in Latin femina piscis, vulpes mascula.

y. Some of the nouns in § 155 possess a generic or class name in addition to the forms given: examples, un chat, un cochon, un mouton, un cheval, un poulet, etc.; but most as a class name use the distinctive male form; ex., un canard: a smaller number the female; ex., une oie, une dinde. The English class-noun sometimes corresponds with the French, sometimes not; thus, oie and goose correspond; not canard and duck.

§ 232. Rule of the e mute. (§ 156.)

1. The Latin neuter seems to have disappeared in Gallo-Latin in the fourth or fifth century.

2. In Latin the gender of a word is, as a rule, known by its ending.*

3. In French words of popular and ancient formation, the Latin ending was either omitted, or was so weakened as to lose its gender power (§ 40, Apocope).

4. The French word was thus practically deprived of its gender. 5. Consciously or not, a new scheme was framed—

(1) French words with 'e mute' final were made feminine.

(2) French words without 'e mute' final were made masculine.

6. So powerful, however, was the Latin, that (1) a great number of words in 'e mute' remained masculine because the Latin noun is masculine or neuter; and (2) some nouns without the 6 e mute' remained feminine because the Latin is feminine.

7. In words of learned formation,† the ending remains in but a slightly modified form; necessarily, the influence of the Latin gender makes itself felt to a still greater extent.

* Although Latin only is here spoken of, all the above applies broadly to words of other origin.

A 'learned' word in French is one which has been consciously and artificially coined from Latin, Greek, etc. It is evident that the coiner of such a word would hold the original gender in respect (§ 37. b).

8. It is useless for the present purpose

(a) To give the origin of those nouns (1) which are feminine in Latin, (2) which end in e mute, (3) which are feminine in French. The French ending is not at variance with the feminine origin of the word: no struggle is possible between the Latin and French.

(b) To give the origin of those nouns which are (1) masculine or neuter in Latin, (2) which have no e mute, (3) which are masculine in French. Here again no struggle is possible.

(c) To give the origin of those nouns which follow the rule of the e mute in opposition to the etymology. In them the French law is obeyed-that is sufficient.*

9. A large number of French nouns are derived from Latin adjectives, present participles, past participles, stems of verbs, etc. The Latin in them exercises little direct influence. They rarely break the rule of e mute.

10. The anomalous nouns, which follow neither the etymology nor the rule of e mute, are very few in number. Some may be traced to the custom of the popular Latin; some to the influence of the Teutonic tribes; some are simple blunders.

§ 233. Substantives of Double Gender.

The distinctions of gender in these substantives have nothing to do with sex, like those in § 230.

They arise from a difference of derivation; from a struggle between the Latin ending and the French ending; from the influence of some word understood, etc. In some cases it seems impossible to point out any reason.

These distinctions of gender have been utilized with more or less success to obtain distinctions of meaning. Or perhaps more often the double gender has followed the double meaning.

But it must be acknowledged that frequently the distinctions both of meaning and of gender are far-fetched and useless. Still they exist, and cannot be overlooked. They may be thus classified:

French nouns of double gender from Latin neuters.
Difference of gender traceable to a difference of origin.
Gender influenced by word understood.

Masculine Latin ending versus feminine French ending.
Masculine noun = adjective employed substantively.

Reasons various.

Reason not apparent.

*This is often done in Grammars; it makes the lists needlessly long.

§ 234. Nouns of double Genders from Latin Neuters. (1) Most Latin neuters have become masculine :

or from aurum

argent from argentum.

(2) Some have added e, but have nevertheless become masculine:

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(3) The ending -a of the Latin neuter plural was often mistaken for a feminine singular. Hence many French feminines :

arme

corne

feuille

arma
cornua

folia

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(4) In some nouns a struggle seems to have gone on between the masculine gender demanded by the French noun, as seen in the ending -um of the Latin, and the supposed feminine gender required, as seen in the ending -a of the Latin.* Hence the following anomalies in gender.

Espace (spatium).

Espace, feminine. Quand on l'eut regardé une espace, on l'osta de la et fut pendu à un arbre. (FROISSART.) This feminine remains in espace, "lead," of printers: Il y a des espaces petites, fortes, minces, moyennes pour donner au compositeur la facilité de justifier. (LITTRE.) In other senses espace is now masculine.

Orgue (organum).

Orgue is masculine in the singular, feminine in the plural. Formerly both forms were feminine.

*No doubt in some instances the struggle is between the ending Latin -um and the French ending -e.

In the absence of any direct evidence, it is but right to ass me that the noun has been derived from the singular, but that the addition of the final 'e mute' has overruled the etymology, and has made the word feminine. The evidence of the plural derivation must often be drawn from the sister languages, Italian, Spanish, Provençal, etc. This seems to have been the rule followed by Littré. He gives in some cases the plural neuter in -a as the parent of the feminine French, in others the singular in -um. It would be of small use for our present purpose to distinguish in each case, even if it were possible. The main point is to assign a reason for distinctions which otherwise appear puerile.

In Old French, many words of similar origin, now definitely fixed in their gender, had double genders; a few are given below.

1. Date, now feminine (Lat. datum, data.) Fait au temps de la dite date. (VILLON, 15th cent.) Ceux-ci alleguaient qu'une requete envoiee d'une si bonne ville, trouverait que le date est efficacieux. (D'AUBIGNE, 16th cent.) 2. Etable, now feminine. (Lat. stabulum, stabula.) Car a tart comence a fermer s'estable cil qui a perdu son cheval. (Lai du Trat, 13th cent.) Il ne faut pas • faire un estable et vie a part. (CALV. Inst., 16th cent.) 3. Etude, now feminine. (Lat. studium, studia.) "Etude pour un lieu ou l'on etudie est feminin; etude pour travail d'etudier est masculin ; qui fait au contraire n'y entend rien." (MALHERBE, 16th century.)

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