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king — queen
monk — nun
lord — lady
Students have to be aware of different connotations of meanings of apparent pairs. Witch/wizard,
manager/manageress, governor/ governess, lord/lady, master/mistress and others are not equal in status
and meaning in some or all contexts. As a rule the feminine noun differs from the corresponding
masculine counterpart not only in the expression of another sex, but has other overtones and even
meanings. Here are some of the meanings of the nouns in the mentioned pairs:
lord — supreme male ruler; God;
lady — woman belonging to upper classes; woman who has good manners and some claim to social
position; (GB) used of and to wives or daughters of some nobles;
master — man who has others working for him and under him;
male head of the household; captain of a merchant ship; male teacher;
male owner of a dog; the Master — Jesus Christ;
mistress — woman at the head of the household or family; woman in authority who gives orders to
servants; woman school teacher;
woman having regular sexual intercourse with one man to whom she is not married;
governor — person who governs a province or a colony or (US) state;
governess — women who is employed to teach young children in a private family;
witch — woman said to use magic, esp. for evil purposes; (fig) fascinating and bewitching woman;
wizard — magician; person with amazing abilities.
To express some male or female animals different words are used. There is often a quartet: the name of
the male, the name of the female, the name of the young and the common name.
* Used for a male that has been castrated.
Specific references in the text can clearly imply the gender in a given case.
Next day he went walking in the forest. And as he was walking he met a fox, a vixen, a very pretty
young thing, gay and giddy like all girls. And the fox saw the cat, and was very much astonished.
"All these years," she said, — for though she was young she thought she had lived a long time, — "all
these years, I've lived in the forest, but I've never seen a wild beast like that before. What a strange-
looking animal! And with only one ear. How handsome!"
A Ransome. Old Peter's Russian Tales
A great many person nouns in English can express both feminine and masculine person genders These
nouns are referred to as nouns of the common gender, or dual gender, person, parent, friend, cousin,
neighbour, student, doctor, teacher, professor, librarian, etc.
If there is no need to indicate the sex distinctions of the person expressed by the noun, it is used as
masculine Besides, lexico-grammatical distinctions as the first component of a compound formation such
as man/woman, male/female, boy/girl, for birds and animals — cock/hen, he/she can be used: