gender

gender · noun, verb, adjective¹

1. Latin · derived fromgenere“type, kind”
2. Old French · derived fromgendre
3. Middle English · inherited fromgendre
4. English todaygender

From Middle English gendre, borrowed from Old French gendre, borrowed from Latin genere (“type, kind”). Doublet of genre and genus. The verb developed after the noun. Displaced native Old English hād (“sex, gender”).

gender · verb²

1. Latingenerāre
2. Middle Frenchgendrer
3. Middle Englishgendren
4. English todaygender

Inherited from Middle English gendren, from Middle French gendrer, from Latin generāre.

gender · noun³

1. Indonesian · borrowed fromgender
2. Indonesian · borrowed fromgender
3. English todaygender

Borrowed from Indonesian gender.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• 14th–19th c. Class; kind.
• from 15th c. Sex (a category, either male or female, into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species).
• from 20th c. Identification as a man, a woman, or something else, and association with a (social) role or set of behavioral and cultural traits, clothing, etc; a category to which a person belongs on this basis. (Compare gender role, gender identity.)
• from 14th c. A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech) into masculine or feminine, and sometimes other categories like neuter or common, and animate or inanimate.
• from 20th c. The quality which distinguishes connectors, which may be male (fitting into another connector) and female (having another connector fit into it), or genderless or androgynous (capable of fitting together with another connector of the same type).