Why Do Women Have Blonde Hair but Men Have Blond?

The surfer dude has blond hair, but his girlfriend has blonde hair. Why the extra “e” for her? The answer relates to gendered language, in which words are grouped into categories based on gender. In English, we have gender-neutral articles, “the” and “a/an,”  but in French, for example, some nouns are preceded by le, a masculine article (such as le café), and others by the feminine article la (such as la vie). 

All French nouns are classified as either masculine or feminine. For example, pensée, durée, journée, and matinée (thought, duration, daytime, and morning) are all feminine, so they are all preceded by the article la.  You will also notice that each of these words contains another “e” following the accented “é,” signifying they are feminine, even without the article. 

Sometimes the French noun changes gender depending on whom it is referring to. For example, fiancé refers to a man and fiancée refers to a woman. When English adopted certain French words, we maintained those spellings and accent marks. And so it is with “fiancé/fiancée” and “blond/blonde.” In both cases, the extra “e” indicates that the subject is feminine. While most of English is non-gendered, some loanwords have kept the gendered usage and spelling. (It’s worth noting that some grammar guides, such as the AP Stylebook, have streamlined things and prefer “blond” in all instances.) 

Alternatively, some loanwords have dropped their gendered spellings over time. In French, brunet refers to a man with brown hair and brunette is the feminine, but in English, “brunet” has dropped out over time and “brunette” is commonly used for all people with brown hair. Likewise, not everyone is aware of the distinction between “fiancé” and “fiancée,” so you likely won’t get criticism if you use one version regardless of gender.

Fortunately, English speakers don’t usually need to concern themselves with whether words are deemed masculine or feminine — a distinction that can be complicated. The same word in French may have two distinct meanings, depending on how it’s gendered. For example, le livre is a book, but la livre is the French currency; le tour is a tour, but la tour is a tower; and le voile is a veil, but la voile is a sail.

About 38% of languages around the world are gendered. The overview here is a very basic explanation, but the construction of different languages can get very complex. Swahili, for example, bases its distinctions on living vs. nonliving nouns, rather than on gender. Other gendered languages include Russian, German, Greek, the Romance languages, and the Slavic languages.