pertaining to a woman or girl: feminine beauty; feminine dress.
2.
having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, as sensitivity or gentleness.
3.
effeminate; womanish: a man with a feminine walk.
4.
belonging to the female sex; female: feminine staff members.
5.
Grammar. noting or pertaining to that one of the three genders of Latin, Greek, German, etc., or one of the two genders of French, Spanish, Hebrew, etc., having among its members most nouns referring to females, as well as other nouns, as Latin stella “star,” or German Zeit “time.”
–noun Grammar.
6.
the feminine gender.
7.
a noun or other element in or marking that gender.
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME < AF, OF: fem. of feminin < L of féminīnus, equiv. to fémin(a) woman (see fetus) + -īnus-ine1]
c.1384, "of the female sex," from O.Fr. feminin, from L. femininus "feminine" (in the grammatical sense at first), from femina "woman, female," lit. "she who suckles," from base of felare "to suck, suckle" (see fecund). Sense of "woman-like, proper to or characteristic of women" is recorded from c.1440. Feminism is from 1851, but meant at first "state of being feminine;" sense of "advocacy of women's rights" is 1895. Feminist is 1894, from Fr. féministe (1872).
Ef*fem"i*nate\, a. [L. effeminatus, p. p. of effeminare to make a woman of; ex out + femina a woman. See Feminine, a.]1. Having some characteristic of a woman, as delicacy, luxuriousness, etc.; soft or delicate to an unmanly degree; womanish; weak. The king, by his voluptuous life and mean marriage, became effeminate, and less sensible of honor. --Bacon. An effeminate and unmanly foppery. --Bp. Hurd. 2. Womanlike; womanly; tender; -- in a good sense. Gentle, kind, effeminate remorse. --Shak. Note: Effeminate and womanish are generally used in a reproachful sense; feminine and womanly, applied to women, are epithets of propriety or commendation.
Fe"male\, n. [OE. femel, femal, F. femelle, fr. L. femella, dim. of femina woman. See Feminine.]1. An individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young, or (in a wider sense) which has an ovary and produces ova. The male and female of each living thing. --Drayton. 2. (Bot.) A plant which produces only that kind of reproductive organs which are capable of developing into fruit after impregnation or fertilization; a pistillate plant.
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