Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.sprintlink.net!in2.uu.net!world!jcf
From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Das Weib
Message-ID: <DDF00t.ILD@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <40r69o$o2o@news.kth.se> <40sgec$20l@oravannahka.Helsinki.FI>
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 17:46:05 GMT
Lines: 19

simon@cc.Helsinki.FI (Julia A M Simon) writes:

>This etymology would
>also explain the gender of "Weib"; since the word obviously originally
>didn't denote a person but a body part it has every right to be a
>neuter, so to speak.

A right, but evidently not a duty.  I was amused to read a while ago
that the vulgar Latin word for the male organ (mentula) was feminine,
and for the female organ (cunnus) masculine.  Latin had a neuter, but
that would have been too easy.  %^)  There is no end to the perversity
of this world.

And what about "das Kind"?  "Child" used to be neuter even in modern
English, and "baby" still sometimes is.
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        239 Clinton Road        (617) 731-9190
        Brookline, MA 02146
