An English Grammar Part 6

Sometimes the _-ess_ has been added to a word already feminine by the ending _-ster_; as _seam-str-ess_, _song-str-ess_. The ending _-ster_ had then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the words _huckster_, _gamester_, _trickster_, _punster_.

[Sidenote: _Ending of masculine not changed._]

30. The ending _-ess_ is added to many words without changing the ending of the masculine; as,--

baron--baroness count--countess lion--lioness Jew--Jewess heir--heiress host--hostess priest--priestess giant--giantess

[Sidenote: _Masculine ending dropped._]

The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine _-ess_ is added; as,--

abbot--abbess negro--negress murderer--murderess sorcerer--sorceress

[Sidenote: _Vowel dropped before adding_ -ess.]

The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as in--

actor--actress master--mistress benefactor--benefactress emperor--empress tiger--tigress enchanter--enchantress

_Empress_ has been cut down from _emperice_ (twelfth century) and _emperesse_ (thirteenth century), from Latin _imperatricem_.

_Master_ and _mistress_ were in Middle English _maister_--_maistresse_, from the Old French _maistre_--_maistresse_.

31. When the older _-en_ and _-ster_ went out of use as the distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending _-ess_, from the French _-esse_, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.

[Sidenote: _Ending_ -ess _less used now than formerly._]

Instead of saying _doctress_, _fosteress_, _wagoness_, as was said in the sixteenth century, or _servauntesse_, _teacheresse_, _neighboresse_, _frendesse_, as in the fourteenth century, we have dispensed with the ending in many cases, and either use a prefix word or leave the masculine to do work for the feminine also.

Thus, we say _doctor_ (masculine and feminine) or _woman doctor_, _teacher_ or _lady teacher_, _neighbor_ (masculine and feminine), etc.

We frequently use such words as _author_, _editor_, _chairman_, to represent persons of either s.e.x.

NOTE.--There is perhaps this distinction observed: when we speak of a female _as an active agent_ merely, we use the masculine termination, as, "George Eliot is the _author_ of 'Adam Bede;'" but when we speak purposely _to denote a distinction from a male_, we use the feminine, as, "George Eliot is an eminent _auth.o.r.ess_."

III. Gender shown by Different Words.

32. In some of these pairs, the feminine and the masculine are entirely different words; others have in their origin the same root.

Some of them have an interesting history, and will be noted below:--

bachelor--maid boy--girl brother--sister drake--duck earl--countess father--mother gander--goose hart--roe horse--mare husband--wife king--queen lord--lady wizard--witch nephew--niece ram--ewe sir--madam son--daughter uncle--aunt bull--cow boar--sow

Girl originally meant a child of either s.e.x, and was used for male or female until about the fifteenth century.

Drake is peculiar in that it is formed from a corresponding feminine which is no longer used. It is not connected historically with our word _duck_, but is derived from _ened_ (duck) and an obsolete suffix _rake_ (king). Three letters of _ened_ have fallen away, leaving our word _drake_.

Gander and goose were originally from the same root word. _Goose_ has various cognate forms in the languages akin to English (German _Gans_, Icelandic _gas_, Danish _gaas_, etc.). The masculine was formed by adding _-a_, the old sign of the masculine. This _gansa_ was modified into _gan-ra_, _gand-ra_, finally _gander_; the _d_ being inserted to make p.r.o.nunciation easy, as in many other words.

Mare, in Old English _mere_, had the masculine _mearh_ (horse), but this has long been obsolete.

Husband and wife are not connected in origin. _Husband_ is a Scandinavian word (Anglo-Saxon _husbonda_ from Icelandic _hus-bondi_, probably meaning house dweller); _wife_ was used in Old and Middle English to mean woman in general.

King and queen are said by some (Skeat, among others) to be from the same root word, but the German etymologist Kluge says they are not.

Lord is said to be a worn-down form of the Old English _hlaf-weard_ (loaf keeper), written _loverd_, _lhauerd_, or _lauerd_ in Middle English. Lady is from _hlfdige_ (_hlf_ meaning loaf, and _dige_ being of uncertain origin and meaning).

Witch is the Old English _wicce_, but wizard is from the Old French _guiscart_ (prudent), not immediately connected with _witch_, though both are ultimately from the same root.

Sir is worn down from the Old French _sire_ (Latin _senior_).

Madam is the French _ma dame_, from Latin _mea domina_.

[Sidenote: _Two masculines from feminines._]

33. Besides _gander_ and _drake_, there are two other masculine words that were formed from the feminine:--

Bridegroom, from Old English _bryd-guma_ (bride's man). The _r_ in _groom_ has crept in from confusion with the word _groom_.

Widower, from the weakening of the ending _-a_ in Old English to _-e_ in Middle English. The older forms, _widuwa_--_widuwe_, became identical, and a new masculine ending was therefore added to distinguish the masculine from the feminine (compare Middle English _widuer_--_widewe_).

Personification.

34. Just as abstract ideas are personified (Sec. 16), material objects may be spoken of like gender nouns; for example,--

"Now, where the swift _Rhone_ cleaves _his_ way."--BYRON.

The _Sun_ now rose upon the right: Out of the sea came _he_.

--COLERIDGE.

And haply the _Queen Moon_ is on _her_ throne, Cl.u.s.tered around by all her starry Fays.

--KEATS,

_Britannia_ needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep; _Her_ march is o'er the mountain waves, _Her_ home is on the deep.

--CAMPBELL

This is not exclusively a poetic use. In ordinary speech personification is very frequent: the pilot speaks of his boat as feminine; the engineer speaks so of his engine; etc.

[Sidenote: _Effect of personification._]

In such cases the gender is marked by the p.r.o.noun, and not by the form of the noun. But the fact that in English the distinction of gender is confined to difference of s.e.x makes these departures more effective.