喜樂美語

One way to picture it: the word simply points at the female side of things — being a woman, a woman's life and roles — and only after that does it stretch into 'the qualities people associate with women' and into grammar.

這個字先是一個很單純的指認——「屬於女性那一邊的」。指的是身為女人這件事本身，以及女人的生活、經歷、角色。從這個中性的指認出發，它才長出第二層（人們心裡覺得「女人味」的那些特質：柔、輕、細）和第三層（文法上被分進「陰性」那一組的字）。先記住底層是「女性這一邊」，其他兩層都是從這裡各自伸出去的。

From the word’s history

From Latin fēmina 'woman' plus the adjective ending -īnus, so literally 'of a woman'.

來自拉丁文 fēmina「女人」，加上形容詞字尾 -īnus，字面就是「屬於女人的」。知道這點很有用：feminine 的底層其實只是「女人的」這個中性指認，那些「柔美、纖細」的聯想是後來社會加上去的，不在字根裡。這也解釋了為什麼文法上的 feminine 完全不涉及柔美——它只是沿用「女性那一組」的標籤。

Wiktionary 'feminine' etymology tree (Latin fēmina + -īnus)

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

同家族的字

比較級 more feminine最高級 most feminine

意思相近

femalewomanlywoman'sladylikewomen'sgentledelicate

用法接近

genderedprettymaternalsoftgraceful

原始詞典資料12 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

feminineadj/ˈfɛmɪnɪn/

  • 1

    Of or pertaining to the female gender.

  • 2

    Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male.

  • 3

    Belonging to females; typically used by females.

    • Mary, Elizabeth, and Edith are feminine names.
  • 4

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

    • Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine.
    • Her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace.
  • 5

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsOf, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.

  • 6

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsOf, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.

    • Women's names were formed in the same way as men's, but with feminine terminations […]
  • 7

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsHaving the vowel harmony of a front vowel.

  • 8

    human-scienceslinguisticsphonologyFollowing or ending on an unstressed syllable.

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

femininenoun/ˈfɛmɪnɪn/

  • 1

    That which is feminine.

  • 2

    obsoleterareA woman.

    • They guide the feminines toward the Pallace.
  • 3

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsThe feminine gender.

  • 4

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsA 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.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。