Genre
/ˈʒɒ̃r/noun
A category or type of artistic, literary, or musical work.
Did you know?The word comes from Latin genus, meaning “birth, stock, kind,” the same ancient root behind ideas of lineage and classification, so every time we say “genre,” we’re really sorting the world by inherited kinds.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ǵenh₁-
“to beget, give birth, produce”
Latin
Latin
genus
“birth, descent, kind, class”
Old French
Old French
genre
“kind, sort, category”
17th Century
English
genre
“a kind or style, especially in art or literature”
Modern English
English
genre
“a category of artistic, literary, or musical works”