Another strange use of feminine gender in the English language.

[onodera]

Every student of English learns sooner or later that ships should be referred to as "she", even if her name is Dwight Eisenhower. Every language has some funny quirks, of course.
But when reading Moby Dick I encountered another case of using the feminine gender for no reason. Yes, I'm talking about "There she blows!". The whalers have no difficulty in telling male or female whales apart, and it's explicitly stated that Moby Dick is male (he would be called Moby ***** otherwise), but they still shout "There she blows!" when they notice a spout.
Does anyone know the origins of this pharse? Why not "There it blows!"?

[rah]

NO it's THAR she blows.

[ColdWizard]

Historic homophobia and horny sailors resulted in anything in the water being called "she".

[N35t0r]

With the very obvous example that they used to sail aboard 'she'-ps.

[Cort Haus]

Cars also, are sometimes allocated the feminine gender. Not much else though.

Does Russian have gender nouns?

[onodera]

Does Russian have gender nouns?

Yes it does, but the gender of inanimate objects is usually determined by the declension pattern. This means a yacht is feminine (yakhta), but a ship (korabl) is masculine.

[Al B. Sure!]

Countries are usually female, as well. Interestingly enough, Germany is a rare exception with the Fatherland (although Germania is a female). I wonder what ethos causes a masculine view of one's nation.

[Cort Haus]

I wonder what ethos causes a masculine view of one's nation.

Having no word for 'fluffy'.

[Al B. Sure!]

Having no word for 'fluffy'.

The google says Flaumig. Such a hard term to describe something fluffy.

[Al B. Sure!]

It's funny... The Nazis arising in Germany should have surprised no one. That's the one country you would expect such a movement to develop in. Bunch of militant perfectionists with a tough-sounding language and a masculine identity. Oh and the whole capitalizing all nouns thing and the making of superwords by combining 4 different words together fits in there somehow, but I'm not sure how.

[Provost Harrison]

It gives them a sense of superiority because no one else can possibly speak their language

[Al B. Sure!]

It gives them a sense of superiority because no one else can possibly speak their language

Oh like....

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübert ragungsgesetz

EDIT:
There isn't supposed to be a space there. I guess the forum automatically figured the word was too long

[Provost Harrison]

Donaudämpfschillgesellschaftskapitan!

[Cort Haus]

The fluffy thing, btw, in case anyone didn't know, is from Blackadder IV

[BlackCat]

Onodera, I think you may find this interesting :

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?_r=3

The part about Guugu Yimithirr is rather special, and the Matses speakers problem with wifes are a bit funny.