feminine
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feminine
- /ˈfɛmɪnɪn/
- /ˈfɛmənɪn/
Where it comes from
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)-der.
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-éh₂
Proto-Italic *θēmanā
Proto-Italic *fēmanā
Latin fēmina
Proto-Indo-European *-nós
Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos
Proto-Italic *-īnos
Latin -īnus
Latin fēminīnusder.
Old French femininbor.
Middle English femynyne
English feminine
From Middle English feminine, femynyne, femynyn, from Old French feminin, feminine, from Latin fēminīnus, from fēmina (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-eh₂ (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”). Related to fetus, feminism, filial, fellatio.
adjective more feminine · most feminine · f. · f · fœminine · femenine
- Of or pertaining to the female gender.
- Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male.
- Belonging to females; typically used by females. Mary, Elizabeth, and Edith are feminine names.
- Having the qualities stereotypically associated with women: nurturing, not aggressive, sensual; womanly. Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine.
- Being of the feminine class or grammatical gender, and inflected in that manner.
- Being inflected in agreement with a feminine noun. Women's names were formed in the same way as men's, but with feminine terminations […]
- Having the vowel harmony of a front vowel.
- Following or ending on an unstressed syllable. Feminine caesura, feminine catalexis, feminine ending, feminine rhyme.
Similar: caring, ladylike, nurturing, beauty, femme, fem, feminine, girlish, girly, ladyish, maidenly, matronly
noun feminines · f. · f · fœminine · femenine
- That which is feminine.
- A woman. They guide the feminines toward the Pallace.
- The feminine gender.
- A word of the feminine gender. These changes being understood, it is easy to see how inaccurate it is to talk of she being the feminine, and they being the plural, of he. The different words belong to different systems, and are no more the masculines and feminines of one another, than (to use a well-known illustration) puss is
