In English, where grammatical gender does not exist, natural gender is indicated in three ways. The first and most common method is by distinctive terminations for the feminine, especially by (of Romance origin), as em peror, empress; lion, lioness; and also by -ix (of Latin origin), as executor, executrix; -ine (of Latin-Romance origin, primarily an adjecti val formation of relation, as Latin regina, queen, literally kingly woman), as hero, heroine; and other more sporadic terminations. The second method is by prefixing words denoting the sex, as ; man servant, maid servant, etc. The third method is the use of different words for the two sexes, as king, queen; boy, girl; stag, hind, and the like.
Consult: Delhrtick, Vergleichende Syntax der indogermanischen Sprachen, i. (Strassburg, 1893) ; Brugmnnn, Nature and Origin of the Noun Genders in the Indo-European Languages (New York, 1897) ; Jacobi, Compositum and Nebensatz (Bonn, 1897) ; Wheeler, "Origin of Grammatical Gender," in Journal of Germanic Philology, ii. (Bloomington, Ind., 1898) ; Paul, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (3d ed., IIalle, 1898).
In the •highly inflected languages, there are certain terminations distinctive of the different genders. It is probable, indeed, that originally every noun, substantive, or adjective Lad a suffix indicative of the sex, real or imaginary, of the object designated, although, like other inflections these suffixes of gender were in process of time mutilated beyond recognition, or in many cases altogether worn off. The terminations most characteristic of the three genders in Latin are masc. us fem. a: neut. tern; corresponding to the Greek os, e, on. Tn a great majority of the adjectives in both those languages, the genders are thus marked. Tn English the gender of a noun affects only the personal pronoun substi tuted for it; in most other languages the ad jectives (including the articles) have different forms for the several genders—a useless compli cation, in the case of modern languages at least.
See ADJECTIVE.
Of the terminations distinctive of gender ob servable in modern English, some are purely Latin, as in executor, executrix; the feminine as in countess, is borrowed from the French, and is also of classical origin. The prevalent feminine termination in German is -in, as in 7iinzerin, a female dancer (Fr. danseuse) ; of this there are two instances in English, in the provincial carlin, the fern. of earl, and vixen= Ger. Fiichsin, a female fox. This affix was al ready in use in Latin, as in regina, a, queen (reg(s), a king) ; and in this form it is used in Europe generally to feminize proper names; e.g. Georgina, Wilhelmina, Caroline.
In such pairs as son—daughter; man—maid; horse--mare; cock—hen, there is no etymolog ical relation between the words; they are from distinct roots. But with regard to hen, e.g. the Anglo-Saxon had the two forms, han for the male, and hen for the female; and mare was originally applicable to both sexes, as horse still is (Fr. marechal, originally an officer who had charge of the horses). The oldest known form of the Teutonic speech, the Gothic, had the two words magus, son, and maqaths, daughter, both from the root mag, to beget, or to make. Ma gaths has become in Ger. Magd, in Eng. maid: magus has been lost in the Teutonic tongues, but it is represented by the Celtic mac (son), evi dently from the same root. Sing, queen, were. in Sans. ganika, father, and goni, mother, both from the root gan, to generate, produce. The masculine form appears in 0. Ger. as chunig, in modern Ger. kUnig, in Eng. king; the feminine was represented by the Greek -yinnj, a woman, as well as the Saxon coven, Sw. quinna, Old Eng. quene or queen applied to a woman generally, and the modern queen, the chief woman of the land. See GRAMMAR.