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There is a term epicene which in English is sort of a synonym for effete or hermaphroditic, but in Latin was a grammatical term for animal words which were the same form for both male and females of the species (and it still has this meaning in linguistics and lexicography). We don't really use the same word for both sexes in bovines: we use cow and bull. But z hints at an answer to the original post. For sow and boar, we have pig. For mare and stallion, horse. But for bovine cow and bull, we have no comparable word, and I believe this was the point of the original post. You're suggesting that, because of the absence of the generic term in English, we use "cow" as an epicene term. I'll buy that, but, again, there are parts of the country where calling a bull a cow will at least generate a few snickers, comparable to a rube having a ride in a Rolls Royce and saying, "This here's the Cadillac of cars, ain't it?"
Last edited by beck123; 03/19/10 10:40 PM.
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You're suggesting that, because of the absence of the generic term in English, we use "cow" as an epicene term.
Not really. I was just saying that language is rarely orthogonal in its grammar or lexicon. An epicene word in English would be housefly or snake. To distinguish between the sexes you have to qualify it.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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No not complicated. We have sow, boar, pig We have ewe, ram, sheep We have cow, bull, cattle, where cattle is always plural. Sow and boar are pigs pl. Ewe and ram are sheep pl. Cow and bull are cattle pl. Wiki largely has the item: Singular terminology dilemma. cattle "All the cattle are standing like statues"
Last edited by BranShea; 03/20/10 09:46 AM. Reason: improvement I hope
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There is something called markedness ( link) in linguistics. Given two forms of a word one is unmarked and the other marked. In words that differ by sex, either the the word for the female or that for the male is marked. In cow it is bull that is marked, but in lion it is lioness.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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@zmjezhd:
OK. Now the use of epicene is more clear to me. Thanks, it's a good word!
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Again, @zmjezhd:
So historically (though less so lately) "man" would be the unmarked word, and "woman" is marked. Is that the right use of the word?
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So historically (though less so lately) "man" would be the unmarked word, and "woman" is marked. Is that the right use of the word?
Yes. But, earlier in English, there was a complete set of words like those in Latin (homo'human being', vir 'man', mulier 'woman'): Old English mann 'human being', guma 'man', and wīf 'woman'. Ironically, guma is related to homo, the generic term in Latin; it is also the origin of the groom in bridegroom. OE wīf is also shows up in a compound wīfman which is the origin of woman.
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However note that the Latin homo-, 'man' is not related to the Greek homo-, 'same'. Also, OE wīfman was masculine gender but wīf was neuter.
Last edited by Faldage; 03/20/10 06:09 PM.
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but wīf was neuter
As is German das Weib 'the female'. It is good to remember that grammatical gender and biological sex do not always overlap.
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The match of modern German gender to OE gender in cognate words, e.g., finger, hand, stool, hound, is pretty good. It wasn't till we basically dumped the concept of gender as a grammatical concept and transfered the word over to the biological realm that we lost track of its original meaning.
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