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In linguistics, the adjective "epicene" is used to describe a word that has only one form for both male and female referents.[1] The term "common" is also used. In English, for example, the words "cousin" and "violinist" can refer to either a man or a woman. While singular pronouns are gender-specific, the plural pronoun "they" is epicene and is therefore often preferred (both using plural constructions or as Singular they. In languages with grammatical gender, the term "epicene" can be used in two distinct[clarification needed] situations: The same word can refer to both masculine and feminine antecedents, while retaining its own grammatical gender. For example, in New Testament Greek, parthenos (παρθένος, "virgin") is a feminine noun, but masculine in form. It can be used to refer to both men and women.[2] A noun or adjective has identical masculine and feminine forms. For example, in French, the noun enfant "child" and the adjective espiègle "mischievous" can be either masculine or feminine: un enfant espiègle "a mischievous male child" une enfant espiègle "a mischievous female child" Epicene is an adjective (sometimes substantive) that indicates lack of gender distinction, often specifically loss of masculinity. It includes: effeminacy — a man with characteristics that are traditionally feminine, androgyny — having both masculine and feminine characteristics, asexuality — a lack of sexual characteristics, and neutrois — an absence of gender expression or gender identity. |
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