1000: Arbitrariness of Gender (g.w.1) Sep 4, 2017

In languages that have grammatical gender, a noun can be masculine or feminine (or neuter if there is a third gender), but this does not mean that it can be classified as 'male' or 'female' in the way that some people may make it seem. In general, words that relate to biology, such as terms for 'man', 'woman', 'penis', 'vagina' etc. correspond to the grammatical gender of masculine or feminine, but there are some issues with generalization. There is no guarantee that this convention will always be followed, so while the German 'Frau' ('woman') is feminine, the word 'Weib' ('wife' or 'female') is neuter, and likewise 'Eierstock' ('ovary') is masculine. This may appear strange but the reason for this is fairly logical: the terms 'masculine' and 'feminine' were only created to describe trends that were already in use. While there are certainly some patterns in terms of how words related to one idea may belong to one gender or another, once one starts looking at the relationship between grammatical gender and the meaning of certain words, there is no more reason that, in German, most alcohols are masculine, or most words relating to a house are neuter than there is a reason 'Weib' is not feminine. These ideas and more will be explained here in more depth over the next six days.

This is part one out of seven of Word Facts' Gender Week to celebrate the 1000th post. Remember to like, share, and stay tuned for the next six.