femme

Etymology

It is borrowed from French femme (“woman, wife”),^[2][3][4][5] from Old French feme,^[5][3] from Latin fēmina (“woman, female”),^[2][5][3][4] literally "she who suckles", from Proto-Indo-European *dhe(i)- (“to suck”).^[5] The word is recorded in Anglo-Norman from the early 12th century, for a woman and a wife.^[6] English had borrowed it earlier as feme, which survives in legal phrases;^[2][7] the OED thinks the form fem and the pronunciation /fɛm/ were probably remodelled after the first syllable of feminine.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman or wife: 1814, in Byron's journal.^[2][4] The word was used earlier in French phrases such as femme couverte, a married woman (the legal feme covert), from the late 17th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Other French phrases followed: femme de chambre, a lady's maid, in the mid-18th century, femme du monde in the late 19th, and femme fatale, a dangerously attractive woman, in the early 20th;^[8] Barnhart finds femme fatale in 1912, in letters of George Bernard Shaw.^[4] On its own the word became American slang for a young woman: Green finds fem or femme in West Point cadet jargon from 1871,^[9] while Etymonline dates the slang sense to 1928.^[5] The OED notes that it was used chiefly in North America, especially in the entertainment industry and in journalism, and has the adjective from 1925, in Variety.^[2] In gay slang femme was applied to an effeminate gay man from 1932, and to a lesbian with a feminine appearance or role from 1947, often in contrast with butch;^[2] Etymonline dates the lesbian sense to 1961, and the Oxford Dictionary of English places the word in the 1960s.^[5][10]

Timeline

• late 17th century – in femme couverte, a married woman.^[8]
• mid 18th century – femme de chambre, a lady's maid.^[8]
• 1814 – a woman, a wife.^[2][4]
• 1871 – US slang, a young woman.^[9] Etymonline dates this sense to 1928.^[5]
• 1912 – femme fatale.^[4]
• 1925 – adjective, female.^[2]
• 1932 – an effeminate gay man.^[2]
• 1947 – a lesbian with a feminine appearance or role.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1961.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang) A woman or girl, especially in show-business and journalistic use: Three femmes joined the chorus line.^[11][2][12]
2. A lesbian whose appearance and manner are seen as feminine, often in contrast with a butch partner.^[11][2][12]
3. (often derogatory) An effeminate gay man.^[2]

Adjective

1. (slang) Female: a femme vocalist.^[9][2]
2. Of a lesbian, or (often derogatory) of a man, feminine in appearance or manner.^[2][9]

Related words

• feme
• female
• feminine
• femme fatale
• effeminate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins