A medieval (and perhaps inherited from much earlier) example:

Though Petrarch's ascent of Mont Ventoux is now best understood as a fiction and an allegory, he referred to the mountain by the locals' name for it, Brother.

Locally, Tibrogargan is male, Beerwah is female and Coonowrin is male according to the dreamtime creation story of the mountains. I'm not sure that the lesser peaks and rocks have any specified gender even though they are "children" of Tibrogargan and Beerwah.

Personally I don't attribute gender to mountains. I just consider them neuter, same as pencils and keyboards.

I just found this:

The exact reason why boats are called she in English is lost to history. While explanations abound, most appear to be of the folk variety, assumed or invented after the fact as a way to make sense of the phenomenon. Boats are a truly interesting case in English, as they are among the only inanimate objects that take a gendered pronoun, whereas most others are called it. Countries are also called she, as are cars sometimes, but the latter example is almost certainly an extension from boats.

One plausible theory is that boats are called she because they are traditionally given female names, typically the name of an important woman in the life of the boat's owner, such as his mother. It has also been surmised that all ships were once dedicated to goddesses, and later to important mortal women when belief in goddesses waned. Interestingly, although male captains and sailors historically attributed the spirit of a benevolent female figure to their ships, actual women were considered very bad luck at sea.

Back to mountains, then it is based of the name of each mountain: if the mountain has a gender-based name. But what about mountains with names like Mt. Aconcagua?

CindyAbbott wrote:Well, I have finshed a climbed and thought (or said) she was a real b------

But seriously, is it based on the name on the mountain? Or, if not named, they are considered female (as boats and ships - which I have no idea why - but they are)?

Well, in your particular case, Chomolungma is a she.

Mountains are like God - no idea what gender, so I prefer calling them 'she'.

The initial route to get on top is usually a struggle

The word "mountain" is assigned a female gender in at least most of the Latin-based languages. "La montange" in French, "la montanga" in Italian, "la montana" in Spanish, etc. I'd guess that's part of the reason...

WoundedKnee wrote:The word "mountain" is assigned a female gender in at least most of the Latin-based languages. "La montange" in French, "la montanga" in Italian, "la montana" in Spanish, etc. I'd guess that's part of the reason...

That is what I was looking for - thanks!!!!

What about Mt. Aconcagua? Male, female, or it?

When I climbed this mountain I got the distinct feeling it's a "she"

Fletch wrote:Cold and unforgiving.

WoundedKnee wrote:The word "mountain" is assigned a female gender in at least most of the Latin-based languages. "La montange" in French, "la montanga" in Italian, "la montana" in Spanish, etc. I'd guess that's part of the reason...

In Slavic languages mountain = gora, hora, planina (she). Peak, summit = szczyt, wierch, vrh (he).

My Bulgarian friend once told me about the mountains in his country: Pirin, because of both its name and the rocky roughness, is considered the only ‘masculine’ mountain range in Bulgaria. All the others – Rila, Rodopi and Stara Planina – are women. The whole story is here.

Now just look what you've started, Cindy!

kamil wrote:In Slavic languages mountain = gora, hora, planina (she). Peak, summit = szczyt, wierch, vrh (he).

Slavic languages are full of bad words in Swedish.
Kuk means cock, hora is a whore...

So is Kebnekaise male or female, Lolli?

dadndave wrote:Now just look what you've started, Cindy!

I think it's cool and an excellent conversation considering there it could have gone

Maybe a knowledgeable person can go through the various "lists" -- e.g. DPS, SPS, state highpoints -- and determine how many were named after women, men, or are ambiguous.

Lolli wrote:Slavic languages are full of bad words in Swedish.
Kuk means cock, hora is a whore...

Kuk appears in mountain names in Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian, right? Bobotov kuk for instance.
And in Danish pik is cock, innit? Sounds like peak.

Nah. Let's start at the top and work our way down.




1. Qomolangma (Everest) Female. "Mother Goddess"

2. K2?? - "...just the bare bones of a name, all rock and ice and storm and abyss. It makes no attempt to sound human. It is atoms and stars. It has the nakedness of the world before the first man - or of the cindered planet after the last"
—Fosco Maraini


3. Kangchenjunga (I can't determine a gender) "Sacred treasure of five snows"

4. Lhotse (appears genderless) "South Peak"

5. Makalu (male by inference - see SP Makalu page) "Big Black"

6. Cho Oyu (Female) "Turquoise Goddess"

7. Dhaulagiri (no apparent gender) "White Mountain"

8. Manaslu (no apparent gender) "Spirit Mountain"

9. Nanga Parbat (No apparent gender but I'm putting this down as female for obvious reasons "Naked Mountain"

10. Annapurna (female) "Full of food" (apparently a femine sanskrit construct. Usually translated more poetically as "Harvest Goddess"

11. Gasherbrum 1 (No apparent gender, but maybe the Balti language uses male and female adjectives, I dunno). "Beautiful Mountain"

12. Broad Peak (does this even require a comment? )

13. Gasherbrum 2 (see Gasherbrum 1)

14. Shisha Pangma (No apparent gender in either it's Nepali or Tibetan names) "Holy Mountain" or "Mountain overlooking a grassy plain" - see SP page)

So I make that 2 female (unless we we allow Nanga Parbat and Broad Peak), 2 male and 10 genderless names.

If my survey sample is sufficient, I'd have to say that the myth in the OP is BUSTED!