Masculine means having qualities traditionally thought of as manly. A masculine voice, masculine styling, traditionally masculine.
In grammar it is a noun class and has nothing to do with sex, since a French table is feminine and a German girl is neuter. Of qualities it is a claim about convention rather than nature, which is what most arguments about it are really about.
1adjectivemasculineHaving qualities traditionally thought of as manly.
“The actor's deep voice and broad shoulders gave him a very masculine look.”
masculine is a quality.
Latin masculinus comes from masculus, male, a diminutive of mas, a male.
Latin
masculīnus
Old French
masculin
Middle English
masculyne
English, today
masculine
Built from
From Middle English masculyne, masculyn, from Old French masculin, from Latin masculīnus, diminutive of masculus (“male, manly”), itself a diminutive of mās (“male”). Displaced native werlīċ.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA