muliebris

Forms

muliebris (neuter muliebre, adverb muliebriter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from mulier (“woman”), from an older stem in ⟨-s-⟩ with the suffix ⟨-ris⟩, as in fūnebris (“funereal”); de Vaan takes it as proof that ⟨mulier⟩ was once an s-stem.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary sets up Proto-Italic *moljezris, from earlier ⟨*moljezlis⟩ with /l…l/ dissimilated to /l…r/.^[1] The origin of ⟨mulier⟩ itself is uncertain: it has been taken as a comparative of the stem of mollis (“soft”) or, by Klingenschmitt, of melior (“better”), “the chief wife”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author.^[5] In the Rudens a man says muliebris vōx mī ad aurīs venit, “a woman's voice reaches my ears”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is of or used by women, and of qualities and actions, as the woman's influence Cicero fears may get a man acquitted;^[2] Fortūna Muliebris is the goddess who watches over women, whose temple Livy mentions; it is also in a woman's likeness, as Vitruvius' statues of women, and made up of women, as Livy's escort of women.^[2] Pars muliebris is the female genitals.^[2] It is typical of a woman, mostly in a bad sense, as Plautus' womanly cunning, and of men effeminate, as Cicero's soft or womanish voice;^[2] Sallust's muliebria patī is to be used sexually by men.^[2] It is female, of sex, and in Varro feminine in grammar.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “feminine”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a woman's voice and womanly cunning.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of the feminine gender.^[2][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of men used as women.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an effeminate voice.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of Fortuna Muliebris.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a woman or women; consisting of women; in a woman's likeness.^[2][1][6]
2. Womanish;^[2][1] (of men) effeminate.^[2][1]
3. Relating to women.^[2]
4. Female;^[2][1] (grammar) feminine.^[2][1]

Word family

• muliebritās
• muliebriter

Related words

• muliebrōsus
• mulier
• mulierārius
• muliercula
• mulierculārius
• mulieritās
• mulierō
• mulierōsitās
• mulierōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 f 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