femininity (fem in in it i)

[ O sowdanese, O serpent under fem in in i tee [var. feminite ]. Chaucer, Man of Law's Tale, 1. 262. Margaret made excuses all so reasonable that Catherine rejected them with calm contempt; to her mind they lacked femininity. C. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, Ixxvi. 2. Womanhood; women collectively. The scenes and experiences described are new and fascinating and refreshing, as much so as pure soul after long travail with dirty humanity; as. after boarding and Broadway femininity. S. Bowles, in Merriam, I. 336. feminismt (fem'i-nizm), п. [ femina , wo- man, + -ism.] The qualities of females. feminityt (fe-min'i-ti), n. [ femminite ; contr. of fem in in i tee : see femininity .] 1. The qualities becoming a woman; womanline . Hither great Venus brought this infant fayre, The yonger daughter of Chrysogonee, And unto Psyche with great trust and care Committed her, yfostered to bee And trained up in trew feminitee . Spenser, F. Q., III. vi. 51. 2. Effeminacy. Symptoms of feminity in the Church of Rome. Dr. H. More, Epistles to the Seven Churches, vi. Milton, P. L., ix. 458. feminization (fem"i-ni-za's hon), n. [ Her [Elizabeth Villers's] letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace. Macaulay , Hist. Eng., xx. The virtues specially commended to the respect and imitation of the faithful in the canonized saints of the Roman Calendar are mostly of the pa ive and ascetic, or, as it is sometimes termed, of the feminine type. H. N. Oxenham , Short Studies, p. 35. 2. Effeminate; destitute of manly qualities. Ninus was no man of war at all, but altogether feminine . Raleigh, Hist. World. "To save it [the male sex] from what?" she asked. "From the most damnable feminization !" H. James, Jr., The Century, XXXI. 87. feminize (fem'i-niz), v . t .; pret. and pp. fem i- nized , ppr. feminizing . [ L.femina , woman, + -ize.] To make feminine or womanish. [Rare.] The serpent said to the feminized Adam, why are you so demure? Dr. H. More, Conjectura Cabbalistic a (1663), p. 45. Per- 3. In gram . , of the gender or cla ification un- der which are included words which apply to fefeminonuclear (fem i-nō-nūklē-är), a . males only: said of words or terminations. The feminine form is often indicated by a change in the ter- min at i on of the masculine word or corresponding term in a- tion, or by a special suffix: thus, in Latin, dominus , a lord, is masculine; but domina , a mistre , is feminine. Abbre- viated fem . - Feminine cesura. See cesura. - Feminine number, an even number. - Feminine rime, a rime be- tween words each of which terminates in an unaccented syllable or syllables, as between very and merry , or be- tween verily and merrily . See rimel. - Feminine sign of the zodiac, in astrol . , one of the even signs, the 2d, 4th, 6th, etc. =Syn. Female , Feminine, Effeminate , Womanish, Womanly, Ladylike ; soft, tender, delicate. Female ap- plies to women and their apparel, to the corresponding sex in animals, and by figure to some inanimate things; feminine, to women and their attributes, to the second grammatical gender; effeminate , only to men. applies to that which distinctively belongs to woman; feminine, commonly, to the softer, more delicate or grace- ful qualities of woman, the qualities being always natural and commendable: as, feminine grace; effeminate , to qual- ities which, though they might be proper and becoming in a woman, are unmanly and weak in a man; womanish, to that which is weak in woman, or weakly like women in Female taining to a fem i no nucleus. [Rare.] fem i no nucleus (fem i-nō-nūklē-us), n.; pl. fem i no nuclei (-1). [NL., We propose. to call the original undifferentiated generative body the nucleus, and its products respectively the male or masculonucleus, and the female or fem i no nucleus, reserving the name of spermatozoa and polar globules for the products of the division of the masculo nucleus. Hyatt , Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XXIII. 54.