MASCULINE, is more ordinarily used in grammar to
signify the first and worthiest of the genders of nouns.
See GENDER.
The masculine gender is that which belongs to the
male kind, or something analogous to it.
Most substances are ranged under the heads of mas-
culine or feminine. This, in some cases, is done with a
show of reason; but in others is merely arbitrary, and
for that reason is found to vary according to the lan-
guages and even according to the words introduced
from one language into another. Thus the names of
trees are generally feminine in Latin and masculine in
the French.
Further, the genders of the same word are sometimes
varied in the same language. Thus alouet, according
to Priscian, was anciently masculine, but is now become
feminine. And navire, "a ship," in French, was an-
ciently feminine, but is now masculine.