sex
    n 1: activities associated with sexual intercourse; "they had
         sex in the back seat" [syn: sexual activity, sexual
         practice, sex, sex activity]
    2: either of the two categories (male or female) into which most
       organisms are divided; "the war between the sexes"
    3: all of the feelings resulting from the urge to gratify sexual
       impulses; "he wanted a better sex life"; "the film contained
       no sex or violence" [syn: sex, sexual urge]
    4: the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of
       their reproductive roles; "she didn't want to know the sex of
       the foetus" [syn: sex, gender, sexuality]
    v 1: stimulate sexually; "This movie usually arouses the male
         audience" [syn: arouse, sex, excite, turn on, wind
         up]
    2: tell the sex (of young chickens)

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.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. Kind; sort. [Obs.] "One gender of herbs." --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Sex, male or female.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
         [PJC]

   3. (Gram.) A classification of nouns, primarily according to
      sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed
      quality associated with sex.
      [1913 Webster]

            Gender is a grammatical distinction and applies to
            words only. Sex is natural distinction and applies
            to living objects.                    --R. Morris.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
         [1913 Webster]

Sex- \Sex-\ [L. sex six. See Six.]
   A combining form meaning six; as, sexdigitism; sexennial.
   [1913 Webster]

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.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. One of the two divisions of organic beings formed on the
      distinction of male and female.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
          [1913 Webster]

   The sex, the female sex; women, in general.
      [1913 Webster]

SEX
 /seks/

    [Sun Users' Group & elsewhere] n.

    1. Software EXchange. A technique invented by the blue-green algae hundreds
    of millions of years ago to speed up their evolution, which had been
    terribly slow up until then. Today, SEX parties are popular among hackers
    and others (of course, these are no longer limited to exchanges of genetic
    software). In general, SEX parties are a Good Thing, but unprotected SEX
    can propagate a virus. See also pubic directory.

    2. The rather Freudian mnemonic often used for Sign EXtend, a machine
    instruction found in the PDP-11 and many other architectures. The RCA
    1802 chip used in the early Elf and SuperElf personal computers had a ?SEt
    X register? SEX instruction, but this seems to have had little folkloric
    impact. The Data General instruction set also had SEX.

    DEC's engineers nearly got a PDP-11 assembler that used the SEX
    mnemonic out the door at one time, but (for once) marketing wasn't asleep
    and forced a change. That wasn't the last time this happened, either. The
    author of The Intel 8086 Primer, who was one of the original designers of
    the 8086, noted that there was originally a SEX instruction on that
    processor, too. He says that Intel management got cold feet and decreed
    that it be changed, and thus the instruction was renamed CBW and CWD
    (depending on what was being extended). Amusingly, the Intel 8048 (the
    microcontroller used in IBM PC keyboards) is also missing straight SEX but
    has logical-or and logical-and instructions ORL and ANL.

    The Motorola 6809, used in the Radio Shack Color Computer and in U.K.'s
    ?Dragon 32? personal computer, actually had an official SEX instruction;
    the 6502 in the Apple II with which it competed did not. British hackers
    thought this made perfect mythic sense; after all, it was commonly
    observed, you could (on some theoretical level) have sex with a dragon, but
    you can't have sex with an apple.

SEX

   /seks/ [Sun Users' Group & elsewhere] 1. Software EXchange.  A
   technique invented by the blue-green algae hundreds of
   millions of years ago to speed up their evolution, which had
   been terribly slow up until then.  Today, SEX parties are
   popular among hackers and others (of course, these are no
   longer limited to exchanges of genetic software).  In general,
   SEX parties are a Good Thing, but unprotected SEX can
   propagate a virus.  See also pubic directory.

   2. The mnemonic often used for Sign EXtend, a machine
   instruction found in the PDP-11 and many other
   architectures.  The RCA 1802 chip used in the early Elf
   and SuperElf personal computers had a "SEt X register" SEX
   instruction, but this seems to have had little folkloric
   impact.

   DEC's engineers nearly got a PDP-11 assembler that used
   the "SEX" mnemonic out the door at one time, but (for once)
   marketing wasn't asleep and forced a change.  That wasn't the
   last time this happened, either.  The author of "The Intel
   8086 Primer", who was one of the original designers of the
   Intel 8086, noted that there was originally a "SEX"
   instruction on that processor, too.  He says that Intel
   management got cold feet and decreed that it be changed, and
   thus the instruction was renamed "CBW" and "CWD" (depending on
   what was being extended).  The Intel 8048 (the
   microcontroller used in IBM PC keyboards) is also missing
   straight "SEX" but has logical-or and logical-and instructions
   "ORL" and "ANL".

   The Motorola 6809, used in the UK's "Dragon 32" personal
   computer, actually had an official "SEX" instruction; the
   6502 in the Apple II with which it competed did not.
   British hackers thought this made perfect mythic sense; after
   all, it was commonly observed, you could (on some theoretical
   level) have sex with a dragon, but you can't have sex with an
   apple.

   [Jargon File]

   (1998-03-03)

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.