femineus Latin · revision 31605

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la fēmina}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [feːˈmɪ.ne.ʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [feˈmiː.ne.us]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''fēmineus''' (feminine fēminea, neuter fēmineum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|fēmina|-eus|t1=woman]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan derives ⟨fēmina⟩ from [[itc-pro|*fēmanā-]] and [[ine-pro|*dʰeh₁-mh₁n-h₂-|t=the one nursing]], an old middle participle of [[ine-pro|*dʰeh₁-|t=to suck, nurse]], the root of [[grc|θῆσθαι|tr=thêsthai|t=to suck]] and [[sa|धयति|tr=dháyati|t=sucks]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL's first instance is in Cicero's verse,^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) where his version of Sophocles has a man cry that he is killed by a woman's hand.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is chiefly a poets' word; in prose it occurs only here and there, as in Varro.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) 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.^(OLD 2012) 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.^(OLD 2012) From Cicero on it can be womanish, cowardly;^(OLD 2012) Ovid uses it of a becoming womanly gait, and Manilius of effeminate men.^(OLD 2012) 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.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero, in a verse translation from Sophocles.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of women's laments.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid of womanly bearing.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a weak “female” magnet.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Of, belonging to or coming from women; made up of women; involving women.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Proper to women, [[m|en|feminine]], womanly;^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) ''fēmineae kalendae'', the first of March.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Womanish, [[m|en|effeminate]], cowardly.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Of the weaker of two varieties of a natural object, “female”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[fēmina]]

+ * [[fēminīnus]]

+ * [[muliebris]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}