An update on the Ada Initiative

Posted Jan 17, 2012 20:00 UTC (Tue) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
In reply to: An update on the Ada Initiative by dgm
Parent article: An update on the Ada Initiative

Masculine and feminine are adjectives, while male and female are usually nouns. And that's all.

Male and female are primarily adjectives. I believe it is a recent invention to use them as nouns; we used to say "man" and "woman" where we say "male" and "female" now. I even heard once that calling a man a male is special to American English.

I never heard a distinction between gender and sex before now, but I like it. There are two things to discuss and two words; it makes sense to use one for each. The history and common usage also matter of course; I don't know much about that.

There is a world of difference between masculine and male. I've never heard of a masculine connector or a feminine hamster.