effeminatus

Forms

effēminātus (feminine effēmināta, neuter effēminātum; comparative effēminātior, superlative effēminātissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect passive participle from Latin effēminō (“to unman, make womanish”).^[1][3] That verb is made from ex- and fēmina (“woman”),^[1] which de Vaan explains as an old participle of Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to suckle”), "the one nursing".^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[5] who in the Tusculan Disputations calls an opinion womanish and light.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Of persons it means imitating a woman in looks or behaviour, effeminate;^[1] of character and actions it means unworthy of a man, womanish, as in Cicero.^[1] Quintilian transfers it to style, preferring a rough arrangement of words to an effeminate one.^[1] The TLL records the comparative from Valerius Maximus on and the superlative from Quintus Cicero, Seneca and Apuleius.^[2] Stelten gives "effeminate" for Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a womanish opinion.^[1][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca in the superlative.^[2]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of an effeminate style.^[1]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius in the superlative.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of persons) Effeminate, imitating a woman in appearance or behaviour.^[1][6]
2. (of character, actions) Unmanly, womanish.^[1]
3. (of style) Effeminate, soft.^[1]

Related words

• effēminō
• fēmina
• English effeminate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson