Keyboards, mice, and genders
This is a strange reality:
| Word | Gender | Languages | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| keyboard | feminine | Italian, Romanian, German | tastiera, tastatură, Tastatur |
| keyboard | masculine | Spanish, Portuguese, French | teclado, teclado, clavier |
| keyboard | neuter | Dutch | toetsenbord |
| mouse (animal) | masculine | Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian | topo, ratón, rato, șoarece |
| mouse (animal) | feminine | French, German, Dutch | souris, Maus, muis |
| mouse (computer loanword) | masculine | Italian | mouse |
| mouse (computer loanword) | neuter | Romanian | mouse |
Both the Italian and Romanian official lexicographic authorities fully embrace the English loanword, rather than discouraging it. Unlike the French Académie française or the Spanish Real Academia Española—which actively mandate native animal translations (souris and ratón)—the regulatory bodies for Italian and Romanian recognized that the English term thoroughly dominated everyday technical usage.
The animal word in IT
In Italian: Attempting to use il topo for the computer peripheral sounds highly unnatural. While Spain successfully adopted el ratón, il topo never gained traction in Italy's early computing vocabulary, leaving the English loanword as the only practical option.
In Romanian: Using the native șoarece for the peripheral is almost non-existent in formal, professional, or standard everyday contexts. When native speakers do use it for the device, it is almost exclusively as a deliberate, humorous literal translation.