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Webster 1913 Edition


Gender

Gen′der

(jĕn′dẽr)
,
Noun.
[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
.]
1.
Kind; sort.
[Obs.]
“One gender of herbs.”
Shak.
2.
Sex, male or female.
3.
(Gram.)
A classification of nouns, primarily according to sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed quality associated with sex.
Gender
is a grammatical distinction and applies to words only. Sex is natural distinction and applies to living objects.
R. Morris.
☞ 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.

Gen′der

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Gendered
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Gendering
.]
[OF.
gendrer
, fr. L.
generare
. See
Gender
,
Noun.
]
To beget; to engender.

Gen′der

,
Verb.
I.
To copulate; to breed.
[R.]
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition


Gender

GEN'DER

,
Noun.
[L. genus, from geno, gigno; Gr.to beget, or to be born; Eng. kind. Gr. a woman, a wife; Sans. gena, a wife, and genaga, a father. We have begin from the same root. See Begin and Can.]
1.
Properly, kind; sort.
2.
A sex, male or female. Hence,
3.
In grammar, a difference in words to express distinction of sex; usually a difference of termination in nouns, adjectives and participles, to express the distinction of male and female. But although this was the original design of different terminations, yet in the progress of language, other words having no relation to one sex or the other, came to have genders assigned them by custom. Words expressing males are said to be of the masculine gender; those expressing females, of the feminine gender; and in some languages, words expressing things having no sex, are of the neuter or neither gender.

GEN'DER

,
Verb.
T.
To beget; but engender is more generally used.

GEN'DER

,
Verb.
I.
To copulate; to breed. Levit. 19.