male
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: māl
ipa: /meːl/
homophone: mail
Forms: form: maler
form: more male
form: malest
form: most male
Etymology: Etymology tree
Latin mās
Proto-Indo-European *-lós
Proto-Italic *-elos
Latin -ulus
Latin -culus
Latin masculus
Vulgar Latin masclus
Old French maslebor.
Middle English male
English male
From Middle English male, borrowed from Old French malle, masle (Modern French mâle), from Latin masculus (“masculine, a male”), diminutive of mās (“male, masculine”). Doublet of macho. Displaced native Old English wǣpned (“male”, literally “penised”), derived from the noun wǣpn (“weapon”), which had the secondary sense “penis”.
Senses: examples: text: male writers
text: the leading male and female singers
text: a male bird feeding a seed to a female
text: in bee colonies, all drones are male
text: intersex male patients
text: We got the hang of [caring for a baby], Kate and I, with some quiet, surprising guidance from a gentle male nurse whose touching lack of intrusion was so instinctive as to seem part of the pattern.
ref: 1995, Gill Van Hasselt, Childbirth: Your Choices for Managing Pain, Taylor Pub, →ISBN:
text: Whereas many other trans male vloggers use the videos to assert a conventionally recognizable masculinity through sculpting and carrying their bodies as well as dressing and talking in masculine-coded ways, Carson explores and plays with ways of expressing femininity within (trans) maleness.
ref: 2016, Tobias Raun, Out Online, →ISBN:
glosses: Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it.
examples: text: stereotypically male interests, an insect with typically male coloration
text: A bright light was shone in her eye and then she heard a kind, male voice who she figured must be Dr. Smith. “Yes, let her rest now, but keep an eye on her blood pressure and her pulse. Check her about every 15 or 20 minutes. Call me if any problem occurs.”
ref: 2006, Bonnie Roberts, Bruises on the Heart, →ISBN, page 118:
text: More than that, we cannot find the same dynamics within female career trajectories as in the other two country groups, because the time-structure of female and male careers already shows great similarity within the older generation of elites. In addition, the pattern of the relation between female and male careers remains the same over time.
ref: 2004, Mino Vianello, Gwen Moore, Women and Men in Political and Business Elites: A Comparative Study, →ISBN:
glosses: Characteristic of this sex/gender. (Compare masculine, manly.)
examples: the male chromosome; like testes, ovaries also produce testosterone and some other male hormones
glosses: Tending to lead to or regulate the development of sexual characteristics typical of this sex.
examples: text: The teacher's voice inflects the pulse of nêhiyawêwin as he teaches us. He says a prayer in the first class. Nouns, we learn, have a gender. In French, nouns are male or female, but in Cree, nouns are living or non-living, animate or inanimate.
ref: 2012, Naomi McIlwraith, Kiyâm: Poems, →ISBN, page 43:
text: If you are describing a female noun, you must make the adjective feminine by adding an 'e'. If you describe a male noun, you add an 'er'. For neutral nouns you add an 'es'.
ref: 2012, Sinéad Leleu, Michaela Greck-Ismair, German Pen Pals Made Easy KS3:
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
qualifier: less common than 'masculine'
glosses: Masculine; of the masculine grammatical gender.
examples: text: Furthermore, male bacteria with fi + R factors, which inhibit the function of F (fi fertility inhibition) (Watanabe et al., 1964a), cannot form specific cell pairs at high frequencies. On the contrary, the formation of[…]
ref: 1967, Symposium on Infectious Multiple Drug Resistance: Genetics, Molecular Nature, and Clinical Implications of R Factors, May 25, 1967, page 7:
text: Male bacteria having the sex factor, also known as the F or "fertility" factor, are termed P if the sex factor exists extrachromosomally. F+ bacteria can only conjugate with F, the female counterparts, which do not possess the F [factor].
ref: (Can we date this quote?), The genetics problem solver, Research & Education Assoc., →ISBN, page 443:
glosses: Having the F factor; able to impart DNA into another bacterium which does not have the F factor (a female).
raw_tags: of bacteria
examples: text: Male adapter connects female pipe threads to polyethylene cold-water pipe; [...] female flare coupling connects male pipe threads to flared copper or plastic;
ref: 1982, Popular Science, page 119:
glosses: Of instruments, tools, or connectors: designed to fit into or penetrate a female counterpart, as in a connector, pipe fitting or laboratory glassware.
Synonyms: word: manly
word: mannish
word: masculine
sense: figurative: of instruments, etc
word: plug
word: pin
Coordinate terms: word: female
word: androgynous
word: intersex
word: non-binary
topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: female: see also masculine