Gender \Gen"der\ (j[e^]n"d[~e]r), n. [OF. genre, gendre (with
   excrescent d.), F.genre, fr. L. genus, generis, birth,
   descent, race, kind, gender, fr. the root of genere, gignere,
   to beget, in pass., to be born, akin to E. kin. See Kin,
   and cf. Generate, Genre, Gentle, Genus.]
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   1. Kind; sort. [Obs.] "One gender of herbs." --Shak.
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   2. Sex, male or female.
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   Note: The use of the term gender to refer to the sex of an
         animal, especially a person, was once common, then fell
         into disuse as the term became used primarily for the
         distinction of grammatical declension forms in
         inflected words. In the late 1900's, the term again
         became used to refer to the sex of people, as a
         euphemism for the term sex, especially in discussions
         of laws and policies on equal treatment of sexes.
         Objections by prescriptivists that the term should be
         used only in a grammatical context ignored the earlier
         uses.
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   3. (Gram.) A classification of nouns, primarily according to
      sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed
      quality associated with sex.
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            Gender is a grammatical distinction and applies to
            words only. Sex is natural distinction and applies
            to living objects.                    --R. Morris.
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   Note: Adjectives and pronouns are said to vary in gender when
         the form is varied according to the gender of the words
         to which they refer.
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Sex- \Sex-\ [L. sex six. See Six.]
   A combining form meaning six; as, sexdigitism; sexennial.
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Sex \Sex\, n. [L. sexus: cf. F. sexe.]
   1. The distinguishing peculiarity of male or female in both
      animals and plants; the physical difference between male
      and female; the assemblage of properties or qualities by
      which male is distinguished from female.
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   2. One of the two divisions of organic beings formed on the
      distinction of male and female.
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   3. (Bot.)
      (a) The capability in plants of fertilizing or of being
          fertilized; as, staminate and pistillate flowers are
          of opposite sexes.
      (b) One of the groups founded on this distinction.
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   The sex, the female sex; women, in general.
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SEX. The physical difference between male and female in animals. 
     2. In the human species the male is called man, (q.v.) and the female, 
woman. (q.v.) Some human beings whose sexual organs are somewhat imperfect, 
have acquired the name of hermaphrodite. (q.v.) 
     3. In the civil state the sex creates a difference among individuals. 
Women cannot generally be elected or appointed to offices or service in 
public capacities. In this our law agrees with that of other nations. The 
civil law excluded women from all offices civil or public: Faemintae ab 
omnibus officiis civilibus vel publicis remotae sunt. Dig. 50, 17, 2. The 
principal reason of this exclusion is to encourage that modesty which is 
natural to the female sex, and which renders them unqualified to mix and 
contend with men; the pretended weakness of the sex is not probably the true 
reason. Poth. Des Personnes, tit. 5; Wood's Inst. 12; Civ. Code of Louis. 
art. 24; 1 Beck's Med. Juris. 94. Vide Gender; Male; Man; Women; Worthiest 
of blood.