FEMININE

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French feminin, from Latin femininus, from femina woman; akin to Old English delu nipple, Latin filius son, felix, fetus, & fecundus fruitful, felare to suck, Greek thēlē nipple Date: 14th century female 1a(1), characteristic of or appropriate or unique to women , of, relating to, or constituting the gender that ordinarily includes most words or grammatical forms referring to females , 4. being an unstressed and usually hypermetric final syllable , having an unstressed final syllable, having the final chord occurring on a weak beat , ~ly adverb ~ness noun II. noun Date: 15th century 1. a noun, pronoun, adjective, or inflectional form or class of the ~ gender, the ~ gender, the embodiment or conception of a timeless or idealized ~ nature