🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <38222C51.1EF77A56@dtn.ntl.com>,
Ian Molton  <oddity@mad.scientist.com> wrote:
>Harlan Messinger wrote:
>> 
>> Because the original meaning of "gender" wasn't "sex"! It comes from the
>> French "genre", meaning "kind", "type", or (English has borrowed the word)
>> "genre".  It came into English with these meanings. It came to be used as a
>> synonym for "sex", but also to describe classes of words belonging to a
>> language.
>
>forgive me for being stupid here but gender and genre are NOT the same
>word in my book...

From the entry for 'gender' in the online OED (_Oxford English 
dictionary_):

1 Kind, sort, class; also, genus as opposed to species.  the general
gender: the common sort (of people)....

The second definition, the lingustic one, goes into great detail, even
including a paragraph on the evolution of gender in Indo-European lan-
guages.

The first definition also coincides with the first definition listed in
the _Websters 3rd international_ (which also, incidently, defines 'ana-
phora' as I used it in my post). Perhaps you need a better book.
-- 
         Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
        (deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
                                   /____\      gegen die Kunst!