I have seen
     A curious child ... applying to his ear
     The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell.

Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender nouns, as in these sentences:—­

Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of
a husband, ... clapping his burnished wings.—­IRVING.

     Gunpowder ... came to a stand just by the bridge, with a
     suddenness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his
     head—­id.

Other animals are not distinguished as to sex, but are spoken of as neuter, the sex being of no consequence.

     Not a turkey but he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, with
     its gizzard under its wing.—­IRVING.

     He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs
     of life in it.—­LAMB.

[Sidenote:  No “common gender.”]

25.  According to the definition, there can be no such thing as “common gender:”  words either distinguish sex (or the sex is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish sex.

If such words as parent, servant, teacher, ruler, relative, cousin, domestic, etc., do not show the sex to which the persons belong, they are neuter words.

26.  Put in convenient form, the division of words according to sex, or the lack of it, is,—­

(MASCULINE:  Male beings. 
Gender nouns {
(FEMININE:  Female beings.

Neuter nouns:  Names of inanimate things, or of living beings whose sex cannot be determined.

27.  The inflections for gender belong, of course, only to masculine and feminine nouns. Forms would be a more accurate word than inflections, since inflection applies only to the case of nouns.

There are three ways to distinguish the genders:—­

(1) By prefixing a gender word to another word.

(2) By adding a suffix, generally to a masculine word.

(3) By using a different word for each gender.

I. Gender shown by Prefixes.

[Sidenote:  Very few of class I.]

28.  Usually the gender words he and she are prefixed to neuter words; as he-goat—­she-goat, cock sparrow—­hen sparrow, he-bear—­she-bear.

One feminine, woman, puts a prefix before the masculine man. Woman is a short way of writing wifeman.

II.  Gender shown by Suffixes.

29.  By far the largest number of gender words are those marked by suffixes.  In this particular the native endings have been largely supplanted by foreign suffixes.