gender

I

gen•der

[[t]ˈdʒɛn dər[/t]] n.

1) gram.

a) a set of grammatical categories applied to nouns, shown by the form of the noun itself or the choice of words that modify, replace, or refer to it, often correlated in part with sex or animateness, as in the choice of he to replace the man, she to replace the woman, or it to replace the table, but sometimes based on arbitrary assignment without regard to the referent of the noun, as in French le livre (masculine) “the book” or German das Mӓdchen (neuter) “the girl.”

b) one of the categories in such a set, as masculine, feminine, neuter, or common

c) membership of a word or grammatical form in such a category

2)

a) sex:

the feminine gender[/ex]

b) the societal or behavioral aspects of sexual identity:

gender studies[/ex]

3) archaic kind, sort, or class

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Etymology: 1300–50; < MFgen(d)re< L gener-, s. of genus kind, sort; cf. genus gen′der•less, adj. usage: The use of gender in the sense “sex” (The author's gender should be irrelevant.) is over 600 years old. Although some people feel that gender should be reserved for grammatical category only, the “sex” sense of gender is now extremely common; sex itself is becoming increasingly rare except when referring to copulation. II

gen•der

[[t]ˈdʒɛn dər[/t]] v. t. v. i.

1) archaic to engender

2) Obs. to breed

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Etymology: 1300–50; ME < MF gendrer < L generāre to beget; see generate