feminine的词源

英文词源

feminine (adj.): mid-14c., "of the female sex," from Old French femenin (12c.) "feminine, female; with feminine qualities, effeminate," from Latin femininus "feminine" (in the grammatical sense at first), from femina "woman, female," literally "she who suckles," from root of felare "to suck, suckle" (see fecund). Usual modern sense of "woman-like, proper to or characteristic of women" is recorded from mid-15c. Related: Femininely.

The interplay of meanings now represented roughly in female "characteristic of the sex that bears children," feminine "having qualities considered appropriate to a woman," and effeminate "having female qualities in a bad sense, unmanly," and the attempt to keep them clear of each other, has led to many coinages. Among nouns, in addition to feminity "womanishness," femininity, femaleness, feminineness (1810, "female qualities"), there is feminitude (1878); feminility "womanliness" (1824); feminie "womankind" (late 14c.); femality (17c., "effeminacy;" 1754 "female nature"); feminacy "female nature" (1829); feminicity "quality or condition of being a woman" (1843). Also feminality (1640s, "quality or state of being female"), from rare adjective feminal "female, belonging to a woman" (late 14c.), from Old French feminal. And femineity "quality or state of being feminine," also "effeminate; womanly," from Latin femineus "of a woman, pertaining to a woman."

来源于拉丁语femina(女人)。

同源词：female

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：feminine 词源，feminine 含义。

先看female（女性的），也许你会认为它由male（男性的）加前缀fe-构成，其实不然。fem是词根“女性”，而-ale是指小后缀，所以原义是“年轻女性”。14世纪末以前，female其实写为femele，后来受male的影响才发生变化。