Gender of soldier ?

root filted:
[nq:1]Can anyone point out the gender of the word 'soldier' ? Was at any point in the history of the word any masculine gender explicitly associated with its meaning ?[/nq]
Only by the implication that a soldier must be male...Latin did something funny with the equivalent of a similar term; "nauta" (="sailor") is grammatically feminine but invariably referred to men..
A fe

[nq:1]Latin did something funny with the equivalent of a similar term; "nauta" (="sailor") is grammatically feminine but invariably referred to men..[/nq]
Is not. "Unus nauta" 'one sailor', not *"una nauta". It's masculine. So are "agricola" ('farmer') and "poeta" ('poet').
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

Aaron J. Dinkin filted:
[nq:2]Latin did something funny with the equivalent of a similar term; "nauta" (="sailor") is grammatically feminine but invariably referred to men..[/nq]
[nq:1]Is not. "Unus nauta" 'one sailor', not *"una nauta". It's masculine. So are "agricola" ('farmer') and "poeta" ('poet').[/nq]
But the plural is "nautae", and the rest of the case-endings follow the same p

[nq:1]Aaron J. Dinkin filted:[/nq]
[nq:2]Is not. "Unus nauta" 'one sailor', not *"una nauta". It's masculine. So are "agricola" ('farmer') and "poeta" ('poet').[/nq]
[nq:1]But the plural is "nautae", and the rest of the case-endings follow the same pattern as "femina", no?...r[/nq]
That's its declension, not its gender.

Carmen L. Abruzzi filted:
[nq:2]But the plural is "nautae", and the rest of the case-endings follow the same pattern as "femina", no?...r[/nq]
[nq:1]That's its declension, not its gender.[/nq]
No wonder the Empire crumbled..r

[nq:1]Can anyone point out the gender of the word 'soldier' ? Was at any point in the history of the word any masculine gender explicitly associated with its meaning ?[/nq]
The etymology is at , even with a paragraph of "word history". Seems it originally meant "mercenary", one who gets paid in sous. Learn some'm every day! That piece doesn't mention gender, but "Old French soudoior and Anglo-

[nq:1]Carmen L. Abruzzi filted:[/nq]
[nq:2]That's its declension, not its gender.[/nq]
[nq:1]No wonder the Empire crumbled[/nq]
And to think they could have avoided the entire problem by using word order instead of case forms.

Bob Lieblich
Whom else?

[nq:2]Carmen L. Abruzzi filted: No wonder the Empire crumbled[/nq]
[nq:1]And to think they could have avoided the entire problem by using word order instead of case forms.[/nq]
That's the cause of the Decline and Fall.

Rob Bannister

[nq:2]Can anyone point out the gender of the word 'soldier' ... word any masculine gender explicitly associated with its meaning ?[/nq]
[nq:1]The etymology is at , even with a paragraph of "word history". Seems it originally meant "mercenary", one who gets ... throughout history the vast majority of soldiers in English-speaking cultures, and many others, have been male. ... Jerry Friedman[/nq]

[nq:1]replacement. This stands in contrast to the situation in French, in which each word has an associated gender: the French equivalent of "soldier," "soldat," would necessarily be male even if speaking of an item for which a biological sexual classification was not meaningful.[/nq]
Oy! The French word "soldat" is masculine, not male.

Try translating "a female soldier" into French.