2047: The Assimilation of Gender Jul 23, 2020

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English spelling and pronunciation don't always match neatly, but in the case of 'fiancé' and 'fiancée', or 'blond' and 'blonde', the words (essentially) mean the same thing and are pronounced the same; the only difference is that the first ones, without the final -e are masculine, and the others feminine. This is changing in English, however. Since the mid-1970's uses of the phrase "blond woman" have actually been used even more than "blonde woman", though it is next to impossible to find instances of 'blonde man'; this period in time saw similar trends with 'fiancé'. In general, and as has been discussed here before, gendered words—especially when the only variation is in the spelling—are disappearing from English, but almost universally trending towards the masculine as a universal.

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