generic noun
- noun
- /dʒəˈnɛrɪk naʊn/
- Specialized
:
sustantivo genérico
- A generic noun like 'parent' can refer to either a mother or a father.
Examples
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The teacher used the generic noun 'actor' to include both men and women in the industry.
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In English, many professions are described using a generic noun rather than gender-specific terms.
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A generic noun can refer to any person or object.
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The term 'teacher' is a generic noun.
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A generic noun like 'parent' can refer to either a mother or a father.
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In English, many professions are described using a generic noun rather than gender-specific terms.
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The teacher used the generic noun 'actor' to include both men and women in the industry.
How Gender-Specific
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'generic' (not specific, applying to a whole class) combined with 'noun' yields a noun that refers to a whole class or any member without specifying gender. This adjective+noun composition follows normal English semantics and is cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The term generic noun comes from the two words generic ('general, not specific') and noun (a naming word). It means a word that can name any member of a group — for example, parent can mean 'a mother or a father', so a generic noun is used when you want a word that covers everyone in the group.