Re: [ot] Linux gender in French

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

On Sat, 2003-11-01 at 18:52, Tom wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 07:42:03PM -0700, Wesley J Landaker wrote:
> > > (I have a theory, but I don't want to influence what you say).
> > 
> > But, now I'm curious... what is your theory?
> 
> Funny timing, I just said it in my previous email a couple of minutes 
> ago.  My (rather facile) theory is that it's freudian.
> 
> My guess:
> Round things seem feminine, angular things seem masculine.
> Things that jut out (gas nozzle) seem masculine; things that recede (gas 
> tank) seem feminine (okay, that's TOO facile).
> Things that receive actions seem feminine (button); things that cause 
> action (lever) seem masculine.
> 
> I'm just guessing :-)

  I don't know about french but in other languiages that have gender it
seems pretty random (unless the subject has explicit gender), often you
can use words of different genders to name same entity, there is no
feminine or masculine feel to the gender of things (see exception
above).

	erik