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feminine
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: féminine
English
Alternative forms
- f., f (abbreviation, grammar)
- fœminine (hypercorrect, obsolete)
Etymology
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.
Pronunciation
Adjective
feminine (comparative more feminine, superlative most feminine)
- Of or pertaining to the female gender; womanly.
- 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.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- Her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace.
- 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):
- Ninias being esteemed no man of warre at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy.
- (grammar) Of, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.
- (of a noun) Being of the feminine class or grammatical gender, and inflected in that manner.
- (of another part of speech) Being inflected in agreement with a feminine noun.
- 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii:
- Women's names were formed in the same way as men's, but with feminine terminations […]
- (grammar, Mongolic languages, of any word) Having the vowel harmony of a front vowel.
- Coordinate term: masculine
- (prosody) Following or ending on an unstressed syllable.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
- antifeminine
- cisfeminine
- feminine caesura
- feminine ending
- feminine hygiene
- femininely
- feminineness
- feminine of center
- feminine product
- feminine rhyme
- femininism
- femininity
- femininization
- femininize
- feminize
- feminoid
- hyperfeminine
- infeminine
- masculofeminine
- nonfeminine
- overfeminine
- pseudofeminine
- superfeminine
- suprafeminine
- transfeminine
- ultrafeminine
- unfeminine
Translations
of the female sex
|
belonging to females
|
having the qualities associated with women
|
of the feminine grammatical gender distinction
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Noun
feminine (plural feminines)
- That which is feminine.
- (rare, possibly obsolete) A woman.
- 1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC:
- They guide the feminines toward the Pallace.
- (grammar) The feminine gender.
- (grammar) A word of the feminine gender.
- 1860, Robert Gordon Latham FRS, An Elementary English Grammar: For the Use of Schools, →OCLC, page 82:
- 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 the vocative case of cat.
Translations
that which is feminine
|
woman — see woman
(grammar)
|
a word of the feminine gender
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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German
Pronunciation
Adjective
feminine
- inflection of feminin:
Italian
Pronunciation
Adjective
feminine
Latin
Etymology 1
From fēminīnus (“feminine”) + -ē.
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [feː.mɪˈniː.neː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [fe.miˈniː.ne]
Adverb
fēminīnē (comparative fēminīnius, superlative fēminīnissimē)
Related terms
Etymology 2
Inflected form of fēminīnus (“feminine”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [feː.mɪˈniː.nɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [fe.miˈniː.ne]
Adjective
fēminīne
References
- “feminine”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “feminine”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
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Middle English
Adjective
feminine
- alternative form of femynyne
Norwegian Bokmål
Adjective
feminine
Norwegian Nynorsk
Adjective
feminine
Romanian
Pronunciation
Adjective
feminine
Swedish
Adjective
feminine
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