Page:A Danish and Dano-Norwegian grammar.djvu/88

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74
ETYMOLOGY.
common gender neuter
Rimen the hoar frost. Rimet the rhyme.
Risen the rice. Riset the fagots, rod.
en Segl (D.) a sickle. et Segl a seal (also et Sejl a sail).
en Skrift a (hand) writing. et Skrift a writing, a book.
en Spand (D., et Spand N.) a pail. et Spand a span, a team.
en Stift a tack. et Stift a diocese.
en Söm a seam. et Söm (D., en Söm N.) a nail.
en Ting a thing. et Thing (Ting) assembly.
en Tryk a print. et Tryk (D., N. et Var) a cover.
en Vœrge a guardian. et Vœrge a weapon.
en Væv a tissue. noget Væv nonsense.
Vœlde power (i al sin Vœlde in all his might). Vœlde (N. in compounds Enevœldet the absolute monarchy; D. Enevœlden).
en Æsel (D., et Æ. N.) an ass. et Æsel a donkey.

In some words the gender is not quite fixed, so they sometimes appear as neuter, at other times as of common gender. Ex.: Fond (D. en and et, N. always et) fund, Helbred (D., always c. N.) health, Katalog (D., always c. N.) catalogue, Lak (D. c. and n., No. always n.) sealing wax, Lög (D. always c. N.) onion; Tarv requirements. Sometimes the gender differs in Danish and Norwegian, as can be seen from some of the examples given above; Kontingent is in D. n., in N. c. Kind cheek, D. c., N. mostly n.

162. Something different from the question of grammatical gender is the circumstance that the language in some