Identify the masculine gender: ?

The question asks to identify a term that represents the masculine gender among the provided options. Gender in language often refers to the anthropological categorization of nouns and pronouns as either masculine or feminine, and sometimes neutral.

Let’s examine the options:

A) Huntress refers to a female hunter. The suffix "-ess" is commonly used to denote female counterparts in English, indicating that this is feminine.

B) Hen specifically refers to a female chicken. Its use denotes the female gender in the context of birds, and thus is also feminine.

C) Baron is a title of nobility that traditionally denotes a male peer or nobleman. The term is inherently masculine, as there are no feminine equivalents that take the same form.

D) Duck can refer to both a male and female duck; however, it does not specify masculinity unless qualified (such as 'drake,' which is the male of the species).

Therefore, among the choices, C) baron is the only term that is unequivocally masculine, making it the correct answer.