R: Re: gender in English

Nik wrote:

> "SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY" wrote:
> > Another point to think about: the gender we typically assign to
> > personifications and anthropomophisms often corresponds to the Old
English
> > gender.
>
> But not always, _scip_ was a neuter noun, yet is often referred to as
> "she" in English.
>
> Now, the $64,000 question - how did "ship" come to be feminized?
Because ships always have maidens' names?

Luca