The Gender of Nouns

§ 2. In accordance with their meaning nouns my be classed as
belonging to the masculine, feminine and neuter gender. Names of
male beings are masculine (e.g. man, husband, boy, son, ox, cock),
and names of female beings are feminine (e.g. woman, wife, girl,
daughter, cow, hen). All other nouns are said to be neuter (e.g.
pen, flower, family, rain, opinion, bird, horse, pride). Gender finds
its formal expression in the replacement of nouns by the pronouns
he she or it.

However, there are nouns in English which may be treated as
either males or females (e.g. cousin, friend). They are said to be of
common gender. When there is no need to make a distinction of
sex, the masculine pronoun is used for these nouns.

Sometimes a separate form for a female is built up by means of
the suffix -ess (e.g. host — hostess, actor — actress, waiter —
waitress, prince — princess, heir — heiress, tiger — tigress, lion —
lioness).

It is also possible to indicate the gender of a noun by forming
different kinds of compounds (e.g. a man servant — a maid ser-
vant, a man driver — a woman driver, a boy-friend — a girl-
friend, a tom-cat — a tabby-cat, a he-wolf — a she-wolf).

Nouns denoting various kinds of vessels (e.g. ship, boat, etc.),
the noun car as well as the names of countries may be referred to
as she.

e.g. Sam joined the famous whaler "Globe". She was a ship on

which any young man would be proud to sail.
Getting out of the car he said to the man in the overalls, "Fill

her up, please."

He said, "England is decadent. She's finished because she is
living in the past."

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