Gender

Etymology 2

From Middle English gendren, genderen, from Middle French gendrer, from Latin generāre.

Verb

gender (third-person singular simple present genders, present participle gendering, simple past and past participle gendered)

1. (archaic) To engender. quotations ▼
2. (archaic or obsolete) To breed.

Etymology 1

From Middle English gendre, gender (see also gendres), from Middle French* gendre, genre, from Latin genus (“kind, sort”). Doublet of genre, genus and kin*.

The verb developed after the noun.

Noun[edit]

gender (countable and uncountable, plural genders)

1. (obsolete) Class; kind. [14th–19th c.] quotations ▼
2. (grammar) A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech) into masculine or feminine, and sometimes other categories like neuter or common, and animate or inanimate. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
3. (now sometimes proscribed) Sex (a category, either male or female, into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species). [from 15th c.] quotations ▼the gene is activated in both *gendersThe effect of the medication is dependent upon age, gender, and other factors.*
4. Identification as a man, a woman, or something else, and association with a (social) role or set of behavioral and cultural traits, clothing, etc; a category to which a person belongs on this basis. (Compare gender role, gender identity.) [from 20th c.] quotations ▼
5. (grammar) Synonym of voice (“particular way of inflecting or conjugating verbs”) quotations ▼
6. (hardware) The quality which distinguishes connectors, which may be male (fitting into another connector) and female (having another connector fit into it), or genderless/androgynous (capable of fitting together with another connector of the same type). [from 20th c.] quotations ▼