femmelette

Forms

femmelette f (plural femmelettes)^[1] Middle French famelette (Machaut) and femelette (first half of the 14th century).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a diminutive from French femme (“woman”).^[2][4][5] The older diminutive was femmette (13th century), which was remade as femelette after femelle “female”.^[2][1] Littré also cites that form in the old language and a Burgundian form famnelôte.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Guillaume de Machaut uses it in the Voir-Dit (about 1365) for a weak woman;^[2][4] femelette is found a little earlier, in the motets of the first half of the 14th century.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

At first the word named a weak, timid or insignificant woman: Villon in the 15th century writes of ces pauvres femmelettes “these poor little women”, and Marot and Ronsard use it in the 16th.^[6][3] The figurative sense, a man without courage or character, is dated 1680, in Madame de Sévigné.^[3] Today the sense of a feeble woman is dated, and the word is mostly a familiar, disparaging term for a weak man.^[5][2]

Timeline

• first half of the 14th century – Femelette in the motets.^[2]
• c. 1365 – Machaut's Voir-Dit has the word in the sense “weak woman”.^[2][3]
• c. 1460 – The spelling femmelette appears in Villon.^[7][3]
• 1680 – Madame de Sévigné uses it of a cowardly man.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A weak, fearful woman, frail in body or in spirit.^[5][2]
2. (familiar, pejorative) A man lacking courage and energy; a wimp or sissy.^[5][2][1]

Related words

• femme
• femelle

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert