That’s actually not true for English. The English usage of gender is tied to the Greek root word genos. The version you’re thinking of is the French version which is based off genre and still a classification word.
no, he's right. The root is latin "Gens" which shares the same root as the greek "Genos" as an Indo-european ur-word meaning "Kind". Languages can have many genders, not just the three we associate with sex. Gender can also indicate abritrary grouping (like the 4th and 5th nominal genders of Latin), animacy (Slavic languages encode for animacy. so do Baltic), Material, ensoulment etc. Several african languages have up to 10 nominal genders. It means type, and nothing more.
That’s actually not true for English. The English usage of gender is tied to the Greek root word genos. The version you’re thinking of is the French version which is based off genre and still a classification word.
no, he's right. The root is latin "Gens" which shares the same root as the greek "Genos" as an Indo-european ur-word meaning "Kind". Languages can have many genders, not just the three we associate with sex. Gender can also indicate abritrary grouping (like the 4th and 5th nominal genders of Latin), animacy (Slavic languages encode for animacy. so do Baltic), Material, ensoulment etc. Several african languages have up to 10 nominal genders. It means type, and nothing more.