Does anyone know why the word "baby" is referred to by the pronoun "it" rather than a human pronoun. Is there an historical/etymological reason?
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1I don't think I've come across people calling babies "it". "They" definitely, but never "it". Is this a regional thing? – Loquacity Jun 05 '11 at 14:56
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6This is common in cases of uncertainty: "She just had a baby." "Is it a boy or a girl?" – Monica Cellio Jun 05 '11 at 17:24
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Related: Will some parents be offended when being asked, “Is it male or female?” – Callithumpian Jun 05 '11 at 18:25
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"Is it a boy or a girl?" can be compared to other usages like "Who is it?" and "It's me." The word "it" can be used as a placeholder or to signal indefiniteness. – Stuart F Jul 28 '21 at 07:44
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I have always assumed that this is because small children are unidentifiable except to the doting parents. If you take a wild guess and call the child "he", there is a 50% chance that they will be offended that you can't tell their beautiful daughter from a boy; "It" will draw a correction, but not offend them. (I have noticed a similar effect with dogs and dogowners.)
This assumes you are not referring to unborn children, who are properly called 'it' because not even the parents can tell without medical assistance.
Tim Lymington
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It is already the case in Old English. The gender is neuter and the pronoun is "hit". The word cild (child) is neuter and so is bearn another synonym for child (Scottish bairn). Baby itself is a later addition of Middle English.
In Modern German, which shares a common ancestry with English, all diminutives (-chen, -lein) are neuter regardless of the original gender.
- Die Maid (maiden) => Das Mädchen (girl),
- Der Mann (man) => Das Männlein (manling).
There might be other similar cases in other Indo European languages but the Latin puer is masculine and the Greek παῖς is either masculine (boy) or feminine (girl).
Alain Pannetier Φ
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2Except manling is kind of strange in English; you'd only really use it to describe a hobbit or a humunculus — if then. We would say boy, and Germans would more commonly refer to a boy as der Junge (short for der Junge Mann, or "the young man"). – Robusto Jun 05 '11 at 12:08
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1@Robusto, I realise my presentation is misleading. Männlein in German means indeed kleiner Man rather than Junge (except maybe in "Männlein und Weiblein"). I chose that example because it illustrated the -lein diminutive and was also symetric in gender to Mädchen. Another possible reproach is that Die Maid is dated. Yet I was looking for clues in the past wasn't I? – Alain Pannetier Φ Jun 05 '11 at 19:19
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How does Old English or German gender have any relevance? As you say, the word "baby" isn't from Old English. – herisson Jul 12 '16 at 05:36
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@sumelic. I'm not sure how many languages you speak but for me when I borrow a word from another language I take the gender from my native languages most immediate related word. "Une trigger" (because 'la détente'). For a more scientific research on gender of borrowed nouns, look here – Alain Pannetier Φ Jul 12 '16 at 05:42
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That would make sense for speakers of gendered languages, but you say the word "baby" was added in Middle English. Hadn't native grammatical gender for specific nouns already been replaced by then with natural gender? – herisson Jul 12 '16 at 05:44
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In the mid 14th century when Baby is first recorded (OED), the deline of grammatical gender in English is nearly complete anyway. As for the origin, I'm not sure it could be Anglo Norman because bébé is very recent in French (ca 1755). But there are plenty of languages (even Akkadian!!!) where baby is b
b – Alain Pannetier Φ Jul 12 '16 at 06:35. It's universal (cf babble) a bit like mama. But yet Old french has babat, Welsh Baban, etc... So there's no shortage of possible conjectures. :)
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From Dictionary.com:
it 1 (ɪt)
— pron
1. refers to a nonhuman, animal, plant, or inanimate thing, or sometimes to a small baby: it looks dangerous ; give it a bone ...."
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And dictionary.com claims to be sourced by Random House Unabridged Dictionary – Klesun Apr 28 '23 at 17:38
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It can be used for humans, animals, or inanimate object It's more common with babies Is IT a boy or a girl, IT is a girl
Example: Who is IT? IT is John.
Dictionary.com
(used to represent a person or animal understood, previously mentioned, or about to be mentioned whose gender is unknown or disregarded): It was the largest ever caught off the Florida coast. Who was it? It was John. The horse had its saddle on.
Brittney
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You should cut & paste the text, because this isn't searchable as an image. – jimm101 Dec 11 '16 at 22:13
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Welcome to the site @Brittney! Good answer, but it answers the wrong question. OP is asking about using "it" to talk about babies, so the only relevant sentence here is "It's more common with babies Is IT a boy or a girl, IT is a girl". – AAM111 Dec 11 '16 at 23:37