male

male
\ \ [14] The Latin word for ‘male’ was masculus (from which of course English gets masculine [14]). It passed into Old French as masle, which later became male – hence English male. The Spanish descendant of masculus is macho, which means ‘virile’ as well as simply ‘male’, and has given English macho [20] and the derivative machismo [20]. Another close relative is probably mallard, which seems to mean etymologically ‘male bird’. Female, incidentally, despite its similarity, is not etymologically related to male, although the two have converged formally owing to their semantic closeness.
\ \ Cf.MACHO, MALLARD, MASCULINE

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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