pmda wrote:Whitakker gives: papyr.us N 2 1 NOM S C - and I'm not sure if / whether / where this indicates gender (I haven't entirely figured out what his marks mean).
N = noun; 2 = 2nd declension; 1 = I don't know what; NOM - nominative; S = singular
C = "common gender". A noun of common gender is one like "civis", which presents the same form whether it refers to a female or a male citizen (unlike, say, "magister", which is only for the male teacher, "magistra" for the female).
In relation to papyrus, the idea of common gender makes not a drop of sense. It can be feminine or neuter, but I suppose this depends merely on the author's whim, not on whether they're describing female or no-sex papyrus. And in fact it must present different forms depending on the gender (neut. nom. pl. "papyra", fem. "papyri"). In Whitaker's Words, common gender seems a looser concept, being applied to any noun that displays more than one gender in the corpus.
pmda wrote:I think Whitakker says it's a 2nd century word: he writes 'N (2nd) C (?)
N = noun; (2nd) = 2nd declension; C= common gender