The story
- Latin · derived frommasculīnus
- Old French · derived frommasculin
- Middle English · inherited frommasculyne
- English todaymasculine
From Middle English masculyne, masculyn, from Old French masculin, from Latin masculīnus, diminutive of masculus (“male, manly”), itself a diminutive of mās (“male”). Displaced native Old English werlīċ (literally “manly”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.