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Feminine

//ˈfɛmɪnɪn// adj, noun

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to the female gender.
  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male.
  3. 3
    Belonging to females; typically used by females.

    "Mary, Elizabeth, and Edith are feminine names."

  4. 4
    Having the qualities stereotypically associated with women: nurturing, not aggressive, sensual; womanly.

    "Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine."

  5. 5
    Of, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.; Being of the feminine class or grammatical gender, and inflected in that manner.
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    Of, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.; Being inflected in agreement with a feminine noun.

    "Women's names were formed in the same way as men's, but with feminine terminations […]"

  2. 7
    Having the vowel harmony of a front vowel.
  3. 8
    Following or ending on an unstressed syllable.

    "Feminine caesura, feminine catalexis, feminine ending, feminine rhyme."

Adjective
  1. 1
    associated with women and not with men wordnet
  2. 2
    befitting or characteristic of a woman especially a mature woman wordnet
  3. 3
    female (of grammatical gender) wordnet
  4. 4
    (music or poetry) ending on an unaccented beat or syllable wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    That which is feminine.
  2. 2
    a gender that refers chiefly (but not exclusively) to females or to objects classified as female wordnet
  3. 3
    A woman. obsolete, possibly, rare

    "They guide the feminines toward the Pallace."

  4. 4
    The feminine gender.
  5. 5
    A word of the feminine gender.

    "These changes being understood, it is easy to see how inaccurate it is to talk of she being the feminine, and they being the plural, of he. The different words belong to dif­fer­ent systems, and are no more the masculines and feminines of one another, than (to use a well-known illustration) puss is the vocative case of cat."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English feminine, femynyne, femynyn, from Old French feminin, feminine, from Latin fēminīnus, from fēmina (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-eh₂ (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”). Related to fetus, feminism, filial, fellatio.

Etymology 2

From Middle English feminine, femynyne, femynyn, from Old French feminin, feminine, from Latin fēminīnus, from fēmina (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-eh₂ (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”). Related to fetus, feminism, filial, fellatio.

See also for "feminine"

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