A Survey of Gendered Language in Wings of Fire
Seeing Arctic call Clearsight “a little girl dragon” in Legends: Darkstalker made me wonder if “girl(s)” was used anywhere else in WoF, and that led to me wanting to see if “boy(s)”, “woman/women”, “man/men”, and “female” and “male” were used at all. I’m not counting Legends: Dragonslayer, since that’s about humans and I’m interested in how WoF’s dragons talk about gender, and I don’t have an OCR copy of A Guide to the Dragon World so it’s out too.
Girl(s)
Dragonet Prophecy: “girl dragons”, “girlfriend”
Dark Secret: “a girl”
Darkness of Dragons: 4 instances of “a girl”, “girlfriend”
Flames of Hope: 2 instances of “girlfriend(s)”, “girl human”
Legends: Darkstalker: “girlfriends’”, “girl dragon”, “a girl”
Boy(s)
Dragonet Prophecy: “boy” as an interjection
Talons of Power: “boy” as an interjection
Darkness of Dragons: 2 instances of “boy” as an interjection
Flames of Hope: “boy human”, 2 instances of “boyfriend”
Winglets: Hero: 2 instances of “a boy”
“Woman” and “women” only appear in Legends: Dragonslayer!
Man/Men
Poison Jungle: “man” as an interjection, “penmanship”. Fun fact: the “man” in “Mandrake” has nothing to do, etymologically, with “man” as in “adult male human”
Flames of Hope: 9 instances of “man”, all referring to humans
Female(s)
Dragonet Prophecy: 2 instances as an adjective
Lost Heir: 8 instances as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Hidden Kingdom: 3 instances as a noun
Dark Secret: 1 instance as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Brightest Night: 3 instances as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Moon Rising: 2 instances as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Winter Turning: 5 instances as an adjective
Talons of Power: 6 instances as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Darkness of Dragons: 1 instance as an adjective
Lost Continent: 3 instances as an adjective, 2 as a noun
Flames of Hope: 2 instances as an adjective
Legends: Darkstalker: 1 instance as a noun, referring to humans
Winglets: Prisoners: 1 instance as an adjective
Winglets: Assassin: 1 instance as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Winglets: Runaway: 1 instance as an adjective
Winglets: Hero: 1 instance as an adjective
Male(s)
Lost Heir: 2 instances as an adjective
Hidden Kingdom: 1 instance as a noun
Dark Secret: 2 instances as an adjective
Brightest Night: 3 instances as an adjective, 4 as a noun
Moon Rising: 3 instances as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Winter Turning: 1 instance as an adjective
Escaping Peril: 1 instance as an adjective
Darkness of Dragons: 4 instances as an adjective
Talons of Power: 5 instances as an adjective, 2 as a noun
Lost Continent: 3 instances as an adjective, 1 as a noun
Hive Queen: 1 instance as an adjective
Legends: Darkstalker: 1 instance as an adjective
Winglets: Assassin: 2 instances as an adjective
While I’m at it, “bro” and “dude” don’t appear in WoF. I thought Tui didn’t use “dragoness” but it does show up once in The Hidden Kingdom. Dragons are “with egg”, but never “pregnant” or (more correctly for egglaying creatures) “gravid”.
I hope this is helpful for fanfiction writers; before doing this survey I wouldn’t have had my characters use “girl” or “boy”, or “man” as an interjection, but now I know they’re canonical.