Why are French nouns in -eur feminine when their latin origin in -or is masculine?

Question

The suffix -eur in modern French typically gives feminine nouns: erreur, ferveur, torpeur, fureur. (Confusingly there's also -(a)teur which gives masculine nouns, but it seems etymologically separate).

The original suffix in Latin is -or, with words like error, fervor, torpor, and furor all being masculine. In both Spanish (-or) and Italian (-ore), the suffix is also masculine.

Do we know when and through what process this suffix became feminine in French?

Development of gender classifications: Modeling the historical change from Latin to French by Maria Polinsky & Ezra Van Everbroeck section 4.2, pp. 376–377 (pp. 20–21 in the file) argues that Latin soror, sorōrem (acc. sg.) and uxor, uxōrem triggered that gender change. I'm not a specialist in Latin and the history of the Romance languages, so I'll just leave it here. — Yellow Sky, Oct 05 '21 at 03:14

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 24 '21 at 21:37

I don't have the answer, but the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese descendents of these Latin nouns are masculine, whereas the French, Provençal and Romanian equivalents are feminine. Some of the French ones (ardeur, honneur, odeur) went back to being masculine in the 16th century, but the only ones that are masculine today are labeur and honneur

Why are French nouns in -eur feminine when their latin origin in -or is masculine?

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