They say, how can this be, it never used to be like this! Oh, it certainly was, we would argue! Over the centuries, many words have changed their gender, and some of them are discussed in this article. From feminine to masculine: **Filma — film** At the dawn of cinema, there was no word "film," but there was "filma" — feminine. Even in 1918, according to a script by Vladimir Mayakovsky, a film titled "Zakovanaya filmoy" was shot in Petrograd. **Botinka — botinok** Look at your botinok and be surprised! Because it used to be "botinkoy"! Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky wrote in 1833 in his work "Igoshа": "Suddenly the window slammed, shattered, rang, and Igoshа, with a botinka on his head, jumped around my room." **Sanatoriya — sanatoriy** It is unknown who and why decided to change the gender of the word "sanatoriya," but this happened somewhere in the early 20th century. Because as late as 1901, Kuprin wrote in "Sentimental Novel": "Again, as last spring, I arrived here, on the shore of the sea, to our sanatoriya." **Zala — zal** One of the few words that once had as many as three genders! Neuter — "zalo," feminine — "zala," and masculine — "zal." But over time, only the masculine gender remained. Originally, this word came to us from Polish and sounded like sala, but over time people began to adhere to the German word Saal in the masculine gender. **Topol** The word "topol" was once used in both genders. Pushkin in his poems uses it first in the masculine gender, and then in the feminine. 1814, "Memoir of Tsarskoye Selo": "…the young willow intertwined with the topol." 1827, "A hundred years have passed since the Teuton…": "Only the hops of the Lithuanian shores, captivated by the German topol…" This is not all! There are other words that changed from feminine to masculine, such as "mindal," "portfel," "gospital," "spektakl," "royal," "otel," "profil." From masculine to feminine: **Metro** Originally, the abbreviation for the word "metropolitan" was masculine. In the USSR, a newspaper was even published called "Sovetskiy metro." But over time, everyone got used to the neuter gender, because most words ending in "o" are neuter. **Ten'** There is a suggestion that the word "ten'" was previously masculine, just like "den'." And the proof of this sounds like this: if you take the words "dver'", "medal'", "krovat'" and apply the diminutive form to them, you get "dverka", "medalka" and "krovatka." But if you apply it to the word "ten'", you get "tenek." It turns out that in ancient times this word had a masculine gender. **This is not all!** There are many other words that jumped from masculine to feminine: "khvoy" (needles), "antresol," "vanilla," "duel," "carousel," "azure," "migraine," "degree" were masculine. In fact, there are many transgender words. Moreover, some slyly change their gender even in our time!