Why are boats female?

[seadogg]

When and why did ships and boats become referred to as "she"?

[Quizmonster]

It's not the NAME of the ship that matters, it's which PRONOUN people use when referring to it that indicates its supposed "gender".

I can't imagine any American sailor saying, "I served aboard USS Ronald Reagan. HE was a magnificent vessel." Nor, in all probability, would he have used IT there.

[mike11111]

The concept of gender with reference to inanimate objects is now largely alien to the English language. What I like about French is that everything is a 'he' or a 'she', there are no 'its'. German, on the other hand, must be a nightmare, as there appear to be no rules to determine gender - apparently a girl is neuter in that language. Yet Russian, for all its complexities (grossly exaggerated) is relatively simple regarding gender as apart from two exceptions the gender of a word can always be determined from its ending.

[Quizmonster]

"Largely alien" is true, but as regards ships, the concept of femaleness still holds good. At naming and launching ceremonies, for example, the words, "God bless this ship and all who sail in HER" are standard.

[jno]

and yet it used to be considered bad luck among superstitious sailors for real live human females to be on a ship. Allegedly... though the supposed origin of the phrase 'shake a leg' makes me wonder about this.

[Quizmonster]

The "shake a leg" situation arose only when a ship was in harbour, as I understand it, when 'ladies' would be invited aboard to 'comfort' the mariners. The bad luck element applied when the vessel was at sea. Most Scottish fishermen to this day won't have women aboard.

[jno]

yes, that makes sense, Quizmonster.

(I mean your post makes sense. The superstition doesn't.)