male

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Latin mās Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Proto-Italic *-kelos Latin -culus Latin masculus Vulgar Latin masclus Old French maslebor. Middle English male English male From Middle English male, borrowed from Old French malle, masle (Modern French mâle), from Latin masculus (“masculine, a male”), diminutive of mās (“male, masculine”). Doublet of macho. Displaced native Old English wǣpned (“male”, literally “weaponed”).

1. Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it.

   “male writers”

   “the leading male and female singers”

2. Characteristic of this sex/gender. (Compare masculine, manly.)

   “stereotypically male interests”

   “an insect with typically male coloration”

3. Tending to lead to or regulate the development of sexual characteristics typical of this sex.

   “the male chromosome”

   “like testes, ovaries also produce testosterone and some other male hormones”

4. Masculine; of the masculine grammatical gender.

   “The teacher's voice inflects the pulse of nêhiyawêwin as he teaches us. He says a prayer in the first class. Nouns, we learn, have a gender. In French, nouns are male or female, but in Cree, nouns are living or non-living, animate or inanimate.”

   “If you are describing a female noun, you must make the adjective feminine by adding an 'e'. If you describe a male noun, you add an 'er'. For neutral nouns you add an 'es'.”

5. Having the F factor; able to impart DNA into another bacterium which does not have the F factor (a female).

   “Furthermore, male bacteria with fi + R factors, which inhibit the function of F (fi fertility inhibition) (Watanabe et al., 1964a), cannot form specific cell pairs at high frequencies. On the contrary, the formation of[…]”

   “Male bacteria having the sex factor, also known as the F or "fertility" factor, are termed P if the sex factor exists extrachromosomally. F+ bacteria can only conjugate with F, the female counterparts, which do not possess the F [factor].”

6. Of instruments, tools, or connectors: designed to fit into or penetrate a female counterpart, as in a connector, pipe fitting or laboratory glassware.

   “Male adapter connects female pipe threads to polyethylene cold-water pipe; [...] female flare coupling connects male pipe threads to flared copper or plastic;”

name

1. A Madang language of Papua New Guinea.

noun

1. Alternative form of Maale.