DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Another strange use of feminine gender in the English language.

**Japakefrope** · 09-09-2010, 03:50 PM

Every student of English learns sooner or later that ships should be referred to as "she", even if her name is Dwight Eisenhower. Every language has some funny quirks, of course.
But when reading Moby Dick I encountered another case of using the feminine gender for no reason. Yes, I'm talking about "There she blows!". The whalers have no difficulty in telling male or female whales apart, and it's explicitly stated that Moby Dick is male (he would be called Moby ***** otherwise), but they still shout "There she blows!" when they notice a spout.
Does anyone know the origins of this pharse? Why not "There it blows!"?

Any hole's a goal.

09-09-2010, 03:50 PM	#8
Japakefrope Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 431 Senior Member	Every student of English learns sooner or later that ships should be referred to as "she", even if her name is Dwight Eisenhower. Every language has some funny quirks, of course. But when reading Moby Dick I encountered another case of using the feminine gender for no reason. Yes, I'm talking about "There she blows!". The whalers have no difficulty in telling male or female whales apart, and it's explicitly stated that Moby Dick is male (he would be called Moby ***** otherwise), but they still shout "There she blows!" when they notice a spout. Does anyone know the origins of this pharse? Why not "There it blows!"? Any hole's a goal.
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