▪ I. feminine, a. and n.
(ˈfɛmɪnɪn)
Forms: 4–6 femynyne, 5–6 femenine, -yn(e, 5 femynyng, 6 feminin, -yne, (Sc. famenene), 7–8 fœminine, 4– feminine.
[a. OF. and Fr. feminin, -ine, ad. L. fēminīnus, f. fēmina woman.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of persons or animals: Belonging to the female sex; female. Now rare.
| c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 275, I sawe perpetually ystalled A feminine creature. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 313 The preie, which is feminine. c 1470 Harding Chron. 279 Edmond..None issue had neither male ne feminine. c 1500 Melusine 369 And now for a serpent of femenyne nature ye shake for fere. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 434/2, I had as leue he bare them both a bare charitie, as with y⊇ frayle feminyne sexe fall to farre in loue. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii 83 But..a soule Feminine saluteth vs. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1625) 319 Of which Manly fœminine people [Amazons] ancient authors disagree. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 423 Those Male, These Feminine. |
b. humorously.
| 1860 O. W. Holmes Elsie V. (1887) 106 A side of feminine beef was..obtained. |
2. In same sense, of objects to which sex is attributed, or which have feminine names, esp. one of the heavenly bodies.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 44 They say that the Moone is a planet Fœminine. 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 10 Under her conduct and standard marcheth the whole feminine army, envy, avarice, pride, &c. 1653 H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 83 Five is acknowledged..to be Male and Female, consisting of Three and Two, the two first Masculine and Feminine numbers. a 1658 Cleveland Hermaphr. 6 Wks. 1687. 19 We chastise the God of Wine With Water that is Feminine. 1751 Harris Hermes Wks. 1841. 130 The earth..is universally feminine. 1839 Bailey Festus (1854) 121 Ye juried stars..Henceforth ye shine in vain to man: Earthy, or moist, or feminine, or fixed. |
3. Of or pertaining to a woman, or to women; consisting of women; carried on by women.
| c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn xlix. 189 She lefte asyde her femenyne wyll. c 1500 Melusine 322 How be it dyuers haue sith sen her in femenyn figure. Ibid. 354 Which cryed with a femenyne voys. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 36 Or wyl you soiourne in this my feminin empyre? 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. i. ii. 31 Take notice of some principall of the orders she made in those feminine Academies. 1649 Milton Eikon. vii. (1851) 388 Govern'd and overswaid at home under a Feminine usurpation. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby iii. iii, Feminine society. 1865 M. E. Braddon Only a Clod xxxviii, They were growing too serious for feminine discussion or friendly sympathy. 1876 ― J. Haggard's Dau. I. 9 The feminine element in the business was supplied by his maiden sister. |
4. a. Characteristic of, peculiar or proper to women; womanlike, womanly.
| 14.. Epiph. in Tundale's Vis. 113 Sche answered most femynyne of chere Full prudently to euery questyon. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 154/2 Femynyne, or woman lyke, muliebris. 1555 Eden Decades 340 Of complexion feminine and flegmatike in comparison to gold. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 219 To such as be of a fœminine and delicate bodie. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 458 Her [Eve's] Heav'nly forme Angelic, but more soft, and Feminine. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 149 ¶11 My sister..the young ladies are hourly tormenting by every art of feminine persecution. 1835 Lytton Rienzi i. i, There was something almost feminine in the tender deference with which he appeared to listen. 1873 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 23 The most virile of poets cannot be adequately rendered in the most feminine of languages. |
† b. Such as a woman is capable of. Obs.
| 1672 Sir T. Browne Let. to Friend xix, Some dreams I confess may admit of easie and feminine exposition. |
5. Depreciatively: Womanish, effeminate. ? Obs.
| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas ii. xiv. (1554) 53 b, Last of eche one was Sardanapall, Most feminine of condicion. 1548 Hall Chron. 18 Rebukyng their timerous heartes, and Feminine audacitie. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. ii. i. §1. 217 Ninias being esteemed no man of warre at all, but altogether feminine. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1702) I. 41 He was of so unhappy a feminine temper, that he was always in a terrible fright. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxi. 112 Not onely to women, but also to men of feminine courage. |
6. a. Gram. Of the gender to which appellations of females belong. Of a termination: Proper to this gender. † Of a connected sentence: Consisting of words of this gender.
| c 1400 Test. Love ii. (1560) 282/2 So speak I in feminine gendre in general. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 472 Spewing forth also this Fœminine Latine: Nam mansueta et misericordiosa est Ecclesia, O Ecclesia Romana! 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. II. 41 Cora..was..a fœminine title of the Sun. 1821 R. Turner Arts & Sc. (ed. 18) 55 Most feminine nouns end in ת or {hebhe}. 1845 Stoddart Encycl. Metrop. I. 30/1 Every noun denoting a female animal is feminine. |
b. Prosody. feminine rime: in French versification, one ending in a ‘mute e’ (so called because the mute e is used as a feminine suffix); hence in wider sense, a rime of two syllables of which the second is unstressed. So feminine ending, feminine termination (of a line of verse or musical phrase); feminine cæsura, one which does not immediately follow the ictus. the e feminine: the French ‘e mute’, and the similar sound in ME. (dropped in the later language).
| 1603 S. Daniel Defence Rhyme sig. H3{supr}, Two feminine nūbers (or Trochees, if so you wil call them). 1775 Tyrwhitt Chaucer's Wks. Pref. Ess. iii. §16 Nothing will be..of such..use for supplying the deficiencies of Chaucer's metre, as the pronunciation of the e feminine. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. i. §34. 31 The Alexandrine..had generally a feminine termination. 1844 Bick & Felton tr. Munk's Metres 27 The former close, because it terminates in a thesis, and is on that account, less forcible, is called feminine, the latter, masculine. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 247 Of feminine rhymes we find..famë, justicë. 1880 Swinburne Stud. Shaks. ii. (ed. 2) 92 Verses with a double ending—which in English verse at least are not in themselves feminine. 1893 E. Prout Mus. Form ii. 9 What is termed by prosodists a ‘feminine ending’—that is, the ending of a verse (in musical language, of a ‘phrase’) on an unaccented note following the accented note on which the actual cadence mostly occurs. 1955 J. A. Westrup in H. van Thal Fanfare for E. Newman xiii. 188 The feminine endings in the melody are similar to those found in early eighteenth-century instrumental music. |
B. n.
1. The adj. used absolutely. † a. gen. She that is, or they that are feminine; woman, women. Obs.
| c 1440 Songs & Carols 15th C. (Percy) 65 Not only in Englond, but of every nacion, The femynyng wyl presume men forto gyd. a 1605 Montgomerie Poems (S.T.S.) lii. 25 The facultie of famenene is so, Vnto thair freind to be his fo. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 893 Not fill the World at once With men as Angels without Feminine. |
b. With defining word: The feminine element in human nature. the eternal feminine as a literal rendering of G. das ewig-weibliche (Goethe).
| 1892 Pall Mall G. 16 June 3/1 The volumes..display the above-noted characteristics of the eternal feminine in its singing moods. 1898 Daily News 5 Sept. 6/2 The Eternal Feminine played a larger part in Oxford social life in the earlier part of the eighteenth century than she has since done. 1912 W. J. Locke Aristide Pujol ix, His quest being little Jean and not the eternal feminine. |
c. A person, rarely an animal, that is feminine; a female, a woman. Now only humorously.
| 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 2021 Doctryne Fer aboue the age of so yonge a femynyne. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 235 When..the Eliphant is so entangled, they guide the feminines towards the Pallace. 1606 Day Ile of Guls ii. v, Sweete Femenine, clip off the taile of thy discourse with the sissars of attention. 1665 Glanvill Sceps. Sci. xv. 87 While all things are judg'd according to their suitableness..to the fond Feminine. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. I. 202 The Deity..was represented as a feminine. 1887 Graphic 15 Jan. 67/1 We are two lone feminines. |
2. Gram. A word of the feminine gender.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 114 They call it Zebi, and the feminin herof Zebiah. 1612 Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) 105 These feminines want the singular number; exuviæ, phaleræ. 1612 ― Lud. Lit. 128 In wordes of three terminations, the first is the Masculine, the second the Feminine, the third is the Neuter. 1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. vii. 117 All Fœminines of the Singular Number, do end in {hebhe}. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. I. 55 Eliza..It was made a feminine in aftertimes. 1885 Mason Engl. Gram. 25 Seamstress and songstress are double feminines. |
▪ II. † ˈfeminine, v. Obs.
[f. prec.]
trans. To make feminine; to weaken, effeminate.
| 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 170 Musicke..dooth rather femenine the minde. |