femineus

Forms

fēmineus (feminine fēminea, neuter fēmineum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fēmina (“woman”) + -eus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives ⟨fēmina⟩ from Proto-Italic *fēmanā- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-mh₁n-h₂- (“the one nursing”), an old middle participle of Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to suck, nurse”), the root of Ancient Greek θῆσθαι (thêsthai, “to suck”) and Sanskrit धयति (dháyati, “sucks”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first instance is in Cicero's verse,^[3][5] where his version of Sophocles has a man cry that he is killed by a woman's hand.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is chiefly a poets' word; in prose it occurs only here and there, as in Varro.^[3][6] Its first sense is “of or from women”, as Virgil's house that wails with women's laments, then “made up of women” and “involving women”: Virgil's Aeneas reflects that there is no glory in punishing a woman.^[2] As “proper to women” it names the fēmineae kalendae, the first of March, when the Matronalia were held, and the Bona Dea is the women's goddess in Propertius.^[2] From Cicero on it can be womanish, cowardly;^[2] Ovid uses it of a becoming womanly gait, and Manilius of effeminate men.^[2] Pliny the Elder calls the weaker of two kinds of a natural object “female”, such as a magnet from the Troad that has no strength.^[2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, in a verse translation from Sophocles.^[2][3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of women's laments.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid of womanly bearing.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a weak “female” magnet.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, belonging to or coming from women; made up of women; involving women.^[2][6][1]
2. Proper to women, feminine, womanly;^[2][1] fēmineae kalendae, the first of March.^[2][1]
3. Womanish, effeminate, cowardly.^[2][1]
4. Of the weaker of two varieties of a natural object, “female”.^[2]

Related words

• fēmina
• fēminīnus
• muliebris

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press