What is the epicene noun and examples

The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) defines the epicene noun as that "animated name that, with a single grammatical gender, can designate beings of either sex." As an example, the dictionary lists the following nouns: baby, lynx, panther, victim. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will study what is the epicene noun, what are its main characteristics and we will see some examples. Keep reading!

In Spanish, the term epicene is used to name a noun that designates in the same way beings belonging to both sexes, with total independence of the grammatical gender of the noun in question.

Thus, an epicene noun can be masculine or feminine, but it always remains the same even if it is used to describe individuals or animals of both sexes. PFor example, the word victim It is an epicene noun of feminine gender, but it is used in Spanish to designate affected that are both men and women, regardless of whether the gender of the noun is feminine.

In fact, one of the characteristics that differentiate the epicene noun from the other nouns is precisely that the epicene noun

does not admit change or variation in gender neither of the noun nor, therefore, of the pronouns, while the rest of nouns do. Let's see it through an example: the word character It is an epicene noun because it refers to both male beings and characters.

In addition, it does not admit gender variation since it is always character and no *the character. Common names do admit gender change in the article when they refer to both sexes: the student - the student. For this reason it is very important to always bear in mind that the sex of living beings, which is male or female, should not be confused with the grammatical gender, which distinguishes between male and female.

Before we have named some of the most common epicenes in our language, such as the terms victim Y character. Generally, epicene nouns are nouns that name people or things related to them, animals or plants.

Next we will see a more extensive list of the most frequent epicene nouns in Spanish:

• Authority
• Holly
• Spider
• Bee
• Eagle
• Ostrich
• Whale
• Baby
• Owl
• Cobra
• Quail
• Spouse
• Dolphin
• Transmitter
• Asparagus
• Starling
• Leopard
• Lynx
• Mosquito
• Panther
• Palm tree
• Relative
• Person
• Partridge
• Willow
• Toad
• Snake
• Shark
• Stem

Another feature that distinguishes epicene nouns from the rest is that, to differentiate the sex of each of the epicene nouns, the terms "male" and "female" are used following the epicene noun.

So, for example, we would say male wasp, female wasp, male hippo, female hippo, female panthers, male panthersmale ostriches or female ostriches.

We observe that both "male" and "female" do not change gender or number; that is, they remain the same without agreeing with the epicene noun, which does agree in gender and number with the article that precedes it.

If, on the other hand, the epicene noun designates a person, to distinguish the sex "masculine" and "feminine" or "male" and "woman" are said, as in female victims, male victims, male character, female character, female relative or the male relative.