Etymologically
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feminine

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfem.ɪ.nɪn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English femynyn, borrowed from Old French feminin,[2][3][4][5] from Latin fēminīnus (“feminine, at first in the grammatical sense”),[2][3] from fēmina (“woman, female”), literally “she who suckles”,[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe(i)- (“to suck”), the root also of fēlō (“to suck”) and fīlius (“son”).[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of grammatical gender: probably about 1350;[2] of the female sex, the mid-14th century in Etymonline.[3]

Semantic evolution

Female, in Chaucer's House of Fame, is from about 1380.[2] Characteristic of women, womanly, is from the mid-15th century,[3][6] and womanish, effeminate, from about 1430.[6] Feminine rhyme is a term of prosody from the 18th century.[4] Trench notes that the modern distinction between feminine, womanly, and effeminate, womanish, is of fairly recent growth.[7] Femininity is from about 1390.[2] Feminism was formed in the mid-19th century.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1350 – feminine (grammar).[2]
  • c. 1380 – female.[2]
  • c. 1390 – femininity.[2]
  • c. 1430 – womanish.[6]
  • mid-15th century – womanly.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to women or girls; female.
  2. Having qualities traditionally thought of as typical of women.
  3. Effeminate; womanish.
  4. (grammar) Of the gender that includes most words for females.

Noun

  1. (grammar) The feminine gender, or a word in it.

Word family

  • femininely
  • feminineness
  • antifeminine
  • femininity
  • feminize
  • hyperfeminine
  • overfeminine
  • pseudofeminine

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker