I know "gender" is a slippery concept and many people ranging from radical feminists to social conservatives would like to get rid of the word and just have men & women with that sex category indicating various biological realities.
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Yes, exactly. The adjective pertaining to the sex of which there can be degrees. I use this as an older example than masculine & feminine. Augustine used it when he described his mother's faith as manly & his tears at her death as womanly.
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Augustine had a very strong and moral sense of what we would now call gender. He didn't mean his mother became a man. He meant her faith was strong & resolute. He didn't mean he became a woman. He meant that he had become overwhelmed by emotion.
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I don't think that quite works. Womanly is an adjective here. I guess you just about say "he was a womanly man"
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Yes, but historically, a man was more likely to be called "womanish" as a criticism of his lack of toughness and a woman called 'womanly' as a compliment to her gentle & nurturing nature.
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