s the Old English _wicce_, but wizard is from the Old
French _guiscart_ (prudent), not immediately connected with _witch_,
though both are ultimately from the same root.

Sir is worn down from the Old French _sire_ (Latin _senior_).
Madam is the French _ma dame_, from Latin _mea domina_.

[Sidenote: _Two masculines from feminines._]

33. Besides _gander_ and _drake_, there are two other masculine
words that were formed from the feminine:--

Bridegroom, from Old English _bryd-guma_ (bride's man). The _r_ in
_groom_ has crept in from confusion with the word _groom_.

Widower, from the weakening of the ending _-a_ in Old English to
_-e_ in Middle English. The older forms, _widuwa_--_widuwe_, became
identical, and a new masculine ending was therefore added to
distinguish the masculine from the feminine (compare Middle English
_widuer_--_widewe_).

Personification.

34. Just as abstract ideas are personified (Sec. 16), material
objects may be spoken of like gender nouns; for example,--

"Now, where the swift _Rhone_ cleaves _his_ way."--BYRON.

The _Sun_ now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came _he_.
--COLERIDGE.

And haply the _Queen Moon_ is on _her_ throne,
Clustered around by all her starry Fays.
--KEATS,

_Britannia_ needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
_Her_ march is o'er the mountain waves,
_Her_ home is on the deep.
--CAMPBELL

This is not exclusively a poetic use. In ordinary speech
personification is very frequent: the pilot speaks of his boat as
feminine; the engineer speaks so of his engine; etc.

[Sidenote: _Effect of personification._]

In such cases the gender is marked by the pronoun, and not by the form
of the noun. But the fact that in English the distinction of gender is
confined to difference of sex makes these departures more effective.

NUMBER.

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

35. In nouns, number means the mode of indicating whether we are
speaking of one thing or of more than one.

36. Our language has two numbers,--_singular_ and _plural_. The
singular number denotes that one thing is spoken of; the plural, more
than one.

37. There are three ways of changing the singular form to the
plural:--

(1) By adding _-en_.

(2) By changing the root vowel.

(3) By adding _-s_ (or _-es_).

The first two methods prevailed, together with the third, in Old
English, but in modern English _-s_ or