Gender

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Gender \Gen"der\ (j[e^]n"d[~e]r), n. [OF. genre, gendre (with
     excrescent d.), F.genre, fr. L. genus, generis, birth,
     descent, race, kind, gender, fr. the root of genere, gignere,
     to beget, in pass., to be born, akin to E. kin. See {Kin},
     and cf. {Generate}, {Genre}, {Gentle}, {Genus}.]
     [1913 Webster]


     1. Kind; sort. [Obs.] "One gender of herbs." --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Sex, male or female.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The use of the term gender to refer to the sex of an
           animal, especially a person, was once common, then fell
           into disuse as the term became used primarily for the
           distinction of grammatical declension forms in
           inflected words. In the late 1900's, the term again
           became used to refer to the sex of people, as a
           euphemism for the term {sex}, especially in discussions
           of laws and policies on equal treatment of sexes.
           Objections by prescriptivists that the term should be
           used only in a grammatical context ignored the earlier
           uses.
           [PJC]
  
     3. (Gram.) A classification of nouns, primarily according to
        sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed
        quality associated with sex.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Gender is a grammatical distinction and applies to
              words only. Sex is natural distinction and applies
              to living objects.                    --R. Morris.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Adjectives and pronouns are said to vary in gender when
           the form is varied according to the gender of the words
           to which they refer.
           [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Gender \Gen"der\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Gendered}; p. pr. & vb.
     n. {Gendering}.] [OF. gendrer, fr. L. generare. See {Gender},
     n.]
     To beget; to engender.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Gender \Gen"der\, v. i.
     To copulate; to breed. [R.] --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  gender
       n 1: a grammatical category in inflected languages governing the
            agreement between nouns and pronouns and adjectives; in
            some languages it is quite arbitrary but in
            Indo-European languages it is usually based on sex or
            animateness [syn: {grammatical gender}]
       2: the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of
          their reproductive roles; "she didn't want to know the sex
          of the foetus" [syn: {sex}, {sexuality}]