féminisme

Forms

féminisme m (plural féminismes)^[1]

Etymology

It was formed by Charles Fourier in 1837 from Latin fēmina (“woman”), the Latin source of femme, with the suffix -isme.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary analyses it instead as from French féminin + -isme with haplology, though it allows that the first sense was probably taken straight from the Latin noun.^[1]

English feminism in the sense “advocacy of women's rights” (1895) comes from the French word.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fourier used it in 1837 for a doctrine that aimed to widen the part played by women in society.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word spread widely only from the 1960s, together with féministe (1872), which won out over a form femmiste made on femme at the end of the 19th century.^[3] The social and political sense, a movement for women's rights and their equality with men in law, politics and the economy, is the main one today.^[2][7]

In medicine, from 1892, it named the state of a male who shows some secondary sexual characteristics of the other sex, a sense that the GLLF dates only to the 20th century.^[2][5][8]

Timeline

• 1837 – Fourier coins the word for a doctrine extending the role of women.^[2][3]
• 1872 – féministe is first recorded.^[3]
• 1892 – Guérin's medical dictionary uses it of feminine traits in a male.^[2][8]
• 1895 – English feminism takes the sense “advocacy of women's rights”.^[6]
• 1960s – The word comes into wide use.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. feminism: the social movement and doctrine seeking the emancipation of women and equal rights with men: le féminisme des années 1970.^[2][7]
2. (medicine) The state of a male showing some feminine secondary sexual characteristics.^[2][7][5]

Word family

• féministe

Related words

• femme
• féminin
• Latin fēmina
• English feminism

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF