feminin

Forms

feminin m or n (feminine singular feminină, masculine plural feminini, feminine/neuter plural feminine)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French féminin and Latin fēminīnus (“female, feminine”), the two sources DEX, MDA2, MDN and DILF name.^[2][3][4][5] DN puts the Latin word first and compares the French one, and Tiktin calls the word a neo-Latin borrowing of the Latin adjective.^[6][7] Wiktionary gives French as the source, itself a learned borrowing from Latin.^[1] The Latin adjective is formed from fēmina (“woman”) with the suffix -īnus.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1799.^[7] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) explains it as “belonging to a woman, resembling a woman”.^[9] MDA2's first record is a passage in Macedonski, quoted from the 1939 edition of his works.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has two main uses: “of a woman, typical of women”, beside the native femeiesc and the popular muieresc, and the grammatical sense “of the feminine gender”.^[2][3] Costinescu (1870) already gives both, with the grammatical noun femininul “the feminine”.^[10] In prosody a feminine rhyme is one that rhymes on an unstressed penultimate syllable.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1799 – first record.^[7]
• 1848 – listed among the neologisms in Negulici's dictionary.^[9]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the general and the grammatical senses.^[10]
• 1931 – CADE marks it as a neologism and gives the grammatical gender as a second sense.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a woman or women: belonging to, typical of or relating to women; femeiesc.^[2][3]
2. (grammar) Of the feminine gender, the gender of the nouns for female beings; as a neuter noun, femininul “the feminine”.^[2][3]
3. (of rhymes) Rhyming on an unstressed penultimate syllable.^[3][6]

Related words

• Latin fēmina

Usage notes

MDA2 records a variant femenin;^[3][12] Scriban compares it with Spanish femenino.^[3][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 387
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 892
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. feminin
5. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. feminin
6. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. feminin
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. feminin
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. feminin
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 429
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. feminin
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 500