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The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF)'s relatively nuanced take on it is here: http://gdt.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=26557671 http://

The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF)'s relatively nuanced take on it is here: http://gdt.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=26557671 http://gdt.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=26557671 "On constate une hésitation dans le genre attribué au terme COVID-19" -- "One can sense some hesitation regarding the gender assigned to the term COVID-19" The feminine form ("la covid") might come (according to the OQLF, at least) from "la maladie à coronavirus 2019" i.e. "maladie" (which is feminine) "transferring" its gender over to "covid". --- Actually, now that I read the Académie Française's take on it, I don't find it too unreasonable: https://www.academie-francaise.fr/le-covid-19-ou-la-covid-19 https://www.academie-francaise.fr/le-covid-19-ou-la-covid-19 They state (as does the OQLF) that the gender is transferred over from the "core" word of the expression. So, "la" (feminine) SNCF because SNCF stands for "Société nationale des chemins de fer français" and "Société" (the core word) is feminine. "la" covid, again, because of "maladie" (which is feminine) The Académie says: "Il n’en reste pas moins que l’emploi du féminin serait préférable" -- "That being said, the use of feminine would be preferable". Not _that_ prescriptive. Should the Académie have a prescriptive (vs descriptive) role in every day French (in France / or Canada) is of course a whole debate topic. :-) --- Shameless plug since we're on the topic: I run an Urban Dictionary-like site for French Canadians expressions -- https://www.laparlure.com/ https://www.laparlure.com/ -- it's purely descriptive and user-generated i.e. French (mostly in Canada) "as it's spoken"

jraph 5y ago
The explanation is not unreasonable, but you have reasonable explanations for the masculine too. Wifi is a good counter-example: Fidelity is feminine, yet the masculine gender is widespread for Wifi. You can also justify the masculine form by metonymy (at the beginning of the pandemic we mostly said coronavirus, and we shifted to covid but kept the masculine of the former). If you'd like some background on this (in French): - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS3BfFPM3qI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS3BfFPM3qI (France Inter, short) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zykIohErTr8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zykIohErTr8 (short) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78FkTtwKw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78FkTtwKw4 (Linguisticae, longer) In short: you cannot argue against the usage, even with the most logical explanation that goes against the usage. Natural languages are far from being formal, entirely consistent and completely logical.

jraph 5y ago

The explanation is not unreasonable, but you have reasonable explanations for the masculine too. Wifi is a good counter-example: Fidelity is feminine, yet the masculine gender is widespread for Wifi. You can also justify the masculine form by metonymy (at the beginning of the pandemic we mostly said coronavirus, and we shifted to covid but kept the masculine of the former). If you'd like some background on this (in French): - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS3BfFPM3qI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS3BfFPM3qI (France Inter, short) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zykIohErTr8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zykIohErTr8 (short) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78FkTtwKw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78FkTtwKw4 (Linguisticae, longer) In short: you cannot argue against the usage, even with the most logical explanation that goes against the usage. Natural languages are far from being formal, entirely consistent and completely logical.