Romantisme gender

Question

I answered that this word was not feminine, even tho it ends in -e, and was marked incorrect. A subsequent lesson noted that romantisme is an exception and is masculine. Please clarify, thank you

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Deb,
You are all correct! 'Romantisme' is indeed masculine, as per the content of the following lesson: how-to-identify-gender-by-some-word-endings
All the questions from the answers from the kwiz are correctly marked and I cannot find a mistake anywhere, being the questions or the lesson content. If you feel you have been marked wrongly, please report the issue via the Report it button in your Correction board. Also, after looking at your test history, it seems that 'Romantisme' got ticked as an answer (probably by mistake) for "Looking at these words' endings, which of these are feminine?", which is indeed incorrect. Maybe this is where the confusion with masculine/feminine lies... ;-)
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

Hi Deb,Below is a copy from     https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/RomantismeAs I understand it; you are correct, this is a noun masculine. I have not found any reference to it being feminine. Perhaps there is an error that needs to be flagged up." [ʀ ɔmɑ ̃tism̭]. Att. ds Ac. dep. 1878. Etymol. and Hist. A. 1804 “character of romantic evocation of something (eg a landscape)” ( Senancour , loc. Cit. ). B. 1. 1824 “literary school opposing classicism” ( Auger , Discourse on Romanticism , April 24, April A. François ds Mél. Baldensperger , 1930, t. 1, p. 329); 2. 1825 “way of thinking, of feeling characteristic of this school” ( Brillat - Sav. , Loc. Cit. ). Der. ofromantic * by substitution of suff. -ism * to -ique * . Freq. abs. liter: 634. Freq. rel. littér .: xix e s .: a) 433 b) 309; xx e s .: a) 819, b) 1667. Bbg. Lanyi (G.). Debates on the definition of Romanticism in literary France 1820-30. Journal of the history of ideas, 1980, Jan-Mar. - Van Tieghem (P.). The Romantic Era ... Paris, 1948, pp"Hope this helps.Jim

Answer

According to Laura Lawless site - all French words that end in "-isme" are masculine; one of the limited situations in French that 'no exceptions' can be added !

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/masculine-noun-endings/