common gender

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

common +‎ gender

NounEdit

common gender (plural common genders)

  1. (linguistics) A grammatical gender in some languages, formed by the historical merging of masculine and feminine genders.
    • 2011, Theo van den Hout, The Elements of Hittite, page 16:
      There are two genders: common gender (genus commune, abbreviated: com.) and neuter (genus neutrum, abbreviated: neut.). The common gender combines the masculine and feminine of other Indo-European languages into one.
  2. (grammar) In some languages (e.g. Latin, Lithuanian), a gender applied to a noun that can be either masculine or feminine.

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