Generally, English doesn't use masculine and feminine nouns or their corresponding adjectives. Sure, we might refer to a car or a boat as "she", but it doesn't really make a difference since our adjective forms don't change dependent on the nouns they describe. The one exception I can think of to this is hair color. The dictionary recognizes both "blond" and "blonde", both "brunet" and "brunette." So here's my question: Are men blonds and brunets while women are blondes and brunettes, or do you tend to use one set all the way through your manuscript? Would you rather read "blonde" for both the men and women in a manuscript, or should the adjective form change depending on which sex is being described?
For myself, I tend to use the feminine of both all the time, and "brunet" just strikes me as wrong when I see it in a book, but I am curious about the rest of you out there. What do you do? What do you like to see other people do?
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Masculine and Feminine
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5 comments:
Throughout my 21 year career in the police department, writing descriptions of people who were arrested, or those who were wanted, etc. we commonly used "blonde" for a woman and "blond" for a man, but never brunette/brunet; only "brown." But that's the PD. To me, "brunet" just looks wrong!
I use blond for males, blonde for women, but that's because my agent told me to do it that way. Prior to that, I never noticed. Now I always do. However, Dictionary.com says:
The spelling blonde is still widely used for the noun that specifies a woman or girl with fair hair: The blonde with the baby in her arms is my anthropology professor. Some people object to this as an unnecessary distinction, preferring blond for all persons: My sister is thinking of becoming a blond for a while. As an adjective, the word is more usually spelled blond in reference to either sex (an energetic blond girl; two blond sons), although the form blonde is occasionally still used of a female: the blonde model and her escort. The spelling blond is almost always used for the adjective describing hair, complexion, etc.: His daughter has blond hair and hazel eyes.
I'm not sure I've ever seen brunet, not without thinking it was a typo or archaic anyway. Shows how much I know!
P.S. My word for verification is "penic." Is that an adjective describing the difference in these spellings?
I always thought "blond" was the hair color, and a "blonde" was a person with that color of hair, regardless of gender. (In typical usage, it's almost a woman who is referred to as "a blonde."
I can't remember seeing "brunet" used anywhere before. I have to get out more.
LOL, Clare!
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