ne. Hence it is that, although in Anglo-Saxon and Old-Saxon the _sun_
is _feminine_, it is in English _masculine_.

_Philosophy_, _charity_, &c., or the names of abstract qualities
personified, take a conventional sex, and are feminine from their being
feminine in Latin.

As in all these words there is no change of form, the consideration of them
is a point of rhetoric, rather than of etymology.

s. 193. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to miscellaneous remarks
upon the true and apparent genders of the English language.

1. With the false genders like _baron_, _baroness_, it is a general rule
that the feminine form is derived from the masculine, and not the masculine
from the feminine; as _peer_, _peeress_. The words _widower_, _gander_, and
_drake_ are exceptions. For the word _wizard_, from _witch_, see the
section on augmentative forms.

2. The termination -ess, in which so large a portion of our feminine
substantives terminate, is not of Saxon but of classical origin, being
derived from the termination -ix, _genitrix_.

3. The words _shepherdess_, _huntress_, and _hostess_ are faulty; the
radical part of the word being Germanic, and the secondary part classical:
indeed, in strict English Grammar, the termination -ess has no place at
all. It is a classic, not a Gothic, element.

4. The termination -inn, is current in German, as the equivalent to -ess,
and as a feminine affix (_freund_ = _a friend_; _freundinn_ = _a female
friend_). In English it occurs only in a fragmentary form;--e.g., in
_vixen_, a true feminine derivative from _fox_ = _fuechsinn_, German.

_Bruin_ = _the bear_, may be either a female form, as in Old High German
_pero_ = _a he-bear_, _pirinn_ = _a she-bear_; or it may be the Norse form
_bjoern_ = _a bear_, male or female.

_Caution._--Words like _margravine_ and _landgravine_ prove nothing, being
scarcely naturalised.

5. The termination -str, as in _webster_, _songster_, and _baxter_, was
originally a feminine affix. Thus, in Anglo-Saxon,

Sangere, _a male singer_ } { Sangestre, _a female singer_.
Bacere, _a male baker_ } were { Bacestre, _a female baker_.
Fidhelere, _a male fiddler_ } opposed { Fidhelstre, _a female fiddler_.
Vebbere, _a male weaver_ } to { Vebbestre, _a female weaver_.
Raedere, _a male reader_ } { Raedestre, _a female reader_.
Seamere, _a male seamer_ } { Seamestre, _a female seamer_.