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"male" in seven languages

Meaningmale

Spanish

macho

/ˈmatʃo/

inherited

Used for animals; for people Spanish says masculino or varón.

French

mâle

/mal/

inherited

Italian

maschio

/ˈmaskjo/

inherited

Portuguese

macho

/ˈmaʃu/

inherited

Romanian

mascul

/masˈkul/

learned

The inherited heir, mascur, narrowed to 'castrated boar'.

Catalan

mascle

/ˈmasklə/

inherited

English

male

/meɪl/

from Latin/French · Old French masle

English → ItalianmalemaschioCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

MASCULUM‘male (diminutive of MĀS)’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

MASCULUM shrank to *masclu, and each sister handled the cluster its own way: Spanish ch, Italian schi, French dropping the s (the circumflex in mâle marks it). English male is the French word, and macho came back from Spanish.

English relatives: masculine, macho

Sound laws at work

C'L inside a wordFrench loses S before a consonant (^)

Learn it

Practice the People deckQuiz a friend on it

In a sentence

  • es¿Es macho o hembra?
  • frC'est un mâle ou une femelle ?
  • itÈ maschio o femmina?
  • ptÉ macho ou fêmea?
  • roE mascul sau femelă?
  • caÉs mascle o femella?
  • enIs it a male or a female?

More in People

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