Etymologically
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femineus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [feːˈmɪ.ne.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [feˈmiː.ne.us][1]

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]

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