¿Por qué es la palabra «mano» femenina?

Question

En español, tenemos una regla en la cual, generalmente, se puede tener fe: Si una palabra termina con -o, es masculina. Sin embargo, palabras que terminan en -e o -a también pueden ser palabras masculinas, pero una que termina con -o es masculina sin duda.

Existe la excepción en la palabra «mano». ¿Por qué es esto? ¿Cómo se originó esta excepción?

this suggests that it is because of the fact that the word "mano" originates from Latin "manus" which has a feminine form. — kristof, Nov 15 '11 at 21:39
@dusan Las dos segundas son formas más cortas: la motocicleta, la fotografía. Me parece que la radio es la misma cosa, pero no estoy segura. — Aarthi, Nov 15 '11 at 21:40
Although it's understood what is meant, i think the topic title is wrong. "La Mano" isn't a word. — Piluso, Nov 16 '11 at 01:02
@dusan: Those are all foreign words (and contractions). Could that have something to do with it? (E.g. La (foto)grafi?) — Tom Au, Nov 18 '11 at 00:29
@TomAu: I think you are right. Even radio is a contraction (radiodifusión). — dusan, Nov 18 '11 at 00:38
@AarthiDevanathan: Yes, I think la mano is the only natural feminine word ending in "o" in Spanish. The rest are alternative forms, short forms, and other variations. — Brian, Nov 18 '11 at 01:54
@Brian: "la dinamo" is also feminine in Spanish: http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=dinamo — CesarGon, Nov 28 '11 at 23:34
@Brian: It's feminine according to DRAE, and in Spain I've always heard "la dinamo". — CesarGon, Nov 29 '11 at 14:22
@CesarGon The Oxford Spanish Dictionary says: dinamo m or (Esp) f so apparently feminine dynamos are a usage peculiar to Spain. Nevertheless, Spanish in Spain is natural so it does constitute a natural example beyond mano. — Brian, Nov 30 '11 at 04:19
@dusan me parece que la radio viene de radioreceptor (el aparato) para el cual debiera decirse el radio, y para la radioemisora si debiera decirse la radio. — Ernesto Marrero, Nov 07 '12 at 17:44
@ErnestoMarrero tienes razón. Según la RAE, radio también puede venir de radiorreceptor, pero son acepciones diferentes de la palabra. — dusan, Nov 07 '12 at 18:06
"dusan si , claro son dos acepciones diferentes. Son dos cosas diferentes. http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=radio — Ernesto Marrero, Nov 07 '12 at 18:14
Para complicar mas la cosa, en Argentina se utiliza el diminutivo "manito", femenino; la manito. En España sin embargo se utiliza "manita". — istepaniuk, Apr 04 '19 at 12:21

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:53

15

Gender

While the rule is in general that all -o words are masculine, there are exceptions. This one is one of these exceptions to that rule.

Origin

One theory (proposed here) is that this word derived from the Latin word manus which was a fourth-declension feminine noun. For comparison, first declension nouns were all feminine and second declension were all masculine or neuter. This particular word, though, was a fourth-declension noun.

Fourth declension nouns were a bit different since they are predominantly masculine with some feminine exceptions. "Manus" was one of those exceptions.

Summary

More than likely, the word la mano derived from the Latin word manus, which was feminine.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:53

Community

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answered Nov 15 '11 at 21:45

Richard

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I like how you call it "a theory" when it seems pretty obvious to me that's exactly what happened. ;) (By the way, there were masculine first-declension nouns, like "athleta", and feminine second-declension nouns, like "humus" -- but the latter were quite rare.) – Kef Schecter Nov 15 '11 at 22:50
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I remember reading about Latin sogrus, which must have been one of these nouns. It evolved analogically into suegra for obvious reasons. (Don't ask me what "father-in-law" was in Latin.) – pablodf76 Feb 25 '17 at 12:47
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@pablodf76 "father-in-law" was socer in Latin. Spanish suegro evolved expectedly from the singular accusitive socrum, which probably influenced why socrus became suegra**. – jacobo Jan 07 '19 at 15:56
@kefschecter All first declension masculine "occupation" nouns that survived into Spanish kept BOTH the -a ending AND the masculine gender (poeta, escriba, pirata, (astro)nauta, etc.). – Nicolas Miari Apr 30 '22 at 15:00

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:53

1. Why most nouns ending -o are masculine, and -a are feminine

Spanish is a Romance language, which means it is descended from Latin. In Latin, nouns fell into 5 groups, depending on how they were declined (i.e. how their suffixes changed depending on case).

The first declension nouns usually end in -a in the nominative singular and are mostly feminine, which is why most words ending -a are feminine in Spanish.

The second and fourth declension nouns usually end -us in the nominative singular and are mostly masculine. Latin words ending -us generally evolved into words ending -o in Spanish, which is why most words ending -o are masculine in Spanish.

2. Why mano bucks the trend

mano comes from Latin manus - one of the few feminine fourth declension nouns, which explains why it ends -o.

However, even within these feminine 4th declension nouns, manus is an exception in Spanish, being the only one to both retain its feminine gender and its (morphologically) expected suffix:

Changed gender

echo > eco (m)
porticus > pórtico (m)
īdūs (pl) > idus (m, pl)
quīnquātrūs (pl) > quinquatro (m)²
lat domus > it duomo > fr dôme > es domo (m)

Changed suffix

fagus > [materia] fāgea > faya > haya (f)
acus > *acūcula > *acūcla > aguja (f)
socrus > *socra¹ > suegra (f)
nurus > *nora > nuera (f)
tribus > tribu (f)

Both

quercus > quernus > al quernus > al quernus + occus > alcornoque (m)

Neither

manus > mano (f)

The reason mano maintained both of these aspects is probably due to a combination of factors:

it didn't refer to a female person, and so had no semantic pressure to change (e.g. nuera, suegra)
it was a very common word
it didn't gain a diminutive suffix in its evolution
it didn't refer to a tree³

Notes

^{1. "Father-in-law" was socer in Latin, which evolved expectedly from the singular accusitive socrum > *socro > suegro, which may have also influenced socrus becoming suegra.}

^{2. 1803 DLE.}

^{3. In addition to the examples presented, fourth declension nouns referring to trees were feminine in Latin as well. These almost exclusively became masculine in Spanish, with the exception of the above fagus > haya:}
^{• pinus > pino (m)

• taxus > tejo (m)

• alnus > alno (m)

• prunus > pruno (m)

• populus > *plōppus > pobo, chopo (m) etc}