# kiwi - gender



## Etcetera

Ciàu,

In Russian, the word "kiwi" has two meanings: it may mean a bird or a fruit. Kiwi bird is feminine in Russian, but kiwi fruit can be either masculine or neuter - it seems that it depends on the speaker's preferences.

How it is in your language?


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## irene.acler

Ciao!
In *Italian* _kiwi_ can be a bird or a fruit, as well. In both cases the word is masculine.


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## Stéphane89

irene.acler said:


> Ciao!
> In *Italian* _kiwi_ can be a bird or a fruit, as well. In both cases the word is masculine.


 
It is the same in French  .


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## Outsider

The Portuguese word is _quivi_ (sometimes it's spelled _kiwi_, but everyone pronounces it "quivi").

As the name of a fruit, it's masculine. As the name of a bird, I only recall hearing it in the masculine too, though this word could easily be epicene (of both genders).


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## Q-cumber

*Etcetera*

According to the Russian Spelling Dictionary, kiwi-bird belongs to the male gender:


> *киви* 1 и *киви-киви*, нескл., м. (птица)
> 
> *киви* 2, нескл., м. и с. (дерево и плод его)



By the way, Kiwi is also a colloquial term (the self-name) for the people of NZ. It is widely used in New Zealand newspapers and so on.


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## ErOtto

Etcetera said:


> Ciàu,
> 
> In Russian, the word "kiwi" has two meanings: it may mean a bird or a fruit...


 
Hi etc.,

kiwi has many more meanings, but all derivate from the bird. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_(disambiguation)

Kiwi fruit originally comes from China, not NZ.

But, to your question:

In Spanish bird and fruit are male.

Regards
ErOtto


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## Frank06

Hi,

In *Dutch*, both the fruit and the bird are masculin.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Outsider

Q-cumber said:


> By the way, Kiwi is also a colloquial term (the self-name) for the people of NZ. It is widely used in New Zealand newspapers and so on.


I think that meaning of "kiwi" is only common in the English language.


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## Lemminkäinen

The fruit is masculine, as is the bird (though it's apparently spelled *kivi*).


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## Whodunit

Etcetera said:


> Ciàu,
> 
> In Russian, the word "kiwi" has two meanings: it may mean a bird or a fruit. Kiwi bird is feminine in Russian, but kiwi fruit can be either masculine or neuter - it seems that it depends on the speaker's preferences.
> 
> How it is in your language?


 
Funnily, in German it's the other way round. 

A kiwi bird is masculine (*der* Kiwi) and the fruit is feminine (*die* Kiwi). The neuter gender is not used for the word "Kiwi," though.


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## Henryk

Outsider said:


> I think that meaning of "kiwi" is only common in the English language.


No, in German it's used for them as well.


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## Outsider

Well, then what is its gender?


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## Henryk

It's mostly used in the plural, "die Kiwis". 

The singular (der Kiwi  masculine) should be avoided due to the possibility to be confused with the bird.


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## Jana337

In Czech:

Kiwi (bird) - masculine (but it took me a while to convince myself )
Kiwi (fruit) - neutral


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

Lemminkäinen said:


> The fruit is masculine, as is the bird (though it's apparently spelled *kivi*).


All the very same in *Slovene*.


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## Q-cumber

Outsider said:


> I think that meaning of "kiwi" is only common in the English language.


I don't think so. Indeed, this meaning of the word might be not so common, but this is because we don't talk about Diggers that often. However, a sportive TV commentator most probably would call NZ athletes "Kiwis".


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## Outsider

You mean in Russian?... Not in Portuguese.


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## Whodunit

Henryk said:


> No, in German it's used for them as well.


 
Well, Outsider said that it was "common" in English. I don't think it is very _common_ an expression in German. I've never used it myself ... maybe because I don't often speak about New Zealanders?


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## Whodunit

Outsider said:


> You mean in Russian?... Not in Portuguese.


 
I think he was talking about the usage in English. As I said, in German it is used, but not very common.


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## Q-cumber

Outsider said:


> You mean in Russian?... Not in Portuguese.



Yep, I meant in Russain. 

*КАКОГО РОДА КИВИ? * (Which gender is kiwi? _A linguistic article_)

Что такое киви, мы узнали, когда среди экзотических фруктов на рынках и в магазинах появился этот заморский плод. И хочется спросить: "А какое это киви - сладкое или кислое?". Мы согласовали прилагательные с незнакомым словечком по среднему роду и не ошиблись. -------->


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## apmoy70

In Greek the fruit is called *«ακτινίδιο»* [aktiˈniði.o] and it's neuter, while the untranslated name of the bird is *«κίβι»* [ˈcivi] also neuter.
If however one prefers to use the translated name of the bird, then *«απτέρυγας»* [apˈteɾiɣas] or (archaism) *«απτέρυξ»* [apˈteɾik͡s] is masculine.


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## Dymn

Both senses are masculine in Catalan and Spanish.


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## ilocas2

Czech:

*kivi* (bird) - masculine
*kiwi* (fruit) - neuter


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## Gavril

Icelandic *kíví *is masculine when referring to the bird, and neuter when referring to the fruit. (There might be some variability, but that is the gender usage I've seen.)

The bird is often called by the longer word _kíví-fugl_ ("kiwi bird"), and since _fugl_ is masculine, this may have influenced the gender of _kíví _as well. Likewise, the phrase _kíví-aldin_ ("kiwi fruit") is sometimes used for the fruit, and _aldin_ is neuter.


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## spindlemoss

Welsh *ciwi*, Irish *cíobhaí* and Manx *keewee *are all masculine but Scottish Gaelic *kiwi* seems to be feminine.


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## ilocas2

Upper Sorbian:

*kiwi* (bird) - masculine
*kiwi* (fruit) - feminine


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## nimak

*Macedonian*

For many Macedonians the word for the fruit *kiwi*, in Macedonian spelled *киви* (kivi) ['kivi] looks like a plural form, so they use *кива* (kiva) ['kiva] for the singular form, which is _feminine gender_. So, in everyday communication the most used forms for this fruit are: *кива* (kiva) _fem. sg._; *киви* (kivi) _pl. _Just compare it with the Macedonian word for _"plum"_ слива (sliva) _fem. sg._, сливи (slivi) _pl_.

On the other hand, linguists say the proper forms should be: *киви* (kivi) _neuter gender singular_; *кивија* (kivija) ['kivija] _plural_. These forms are used for the bird too.


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## Zareza

In *Romanian *it is pronounced /kivi/

*kiwi* (bird) - feminine invariable

*kiwi* (fruit) - neuter invariable - un kiwi / două kiwi = one kiwi / two kiwi


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