femme
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fɛm/
Noun
femme (plural femmes)
- A woman, a wife; (now chiefly North American) a young woman or girl. [from 19th c.]
- 1885, Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 18:
- Then I turned to him and said, "O my lord, I have that to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me; and this it is that, when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as thy handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and I will be femme to thee."
- 1983, Variety's Film Reviews: 1964–1967:
- Theodore J. Flicker and George Kirgo have penned a good script in which Elvis is played off against four femmes […].
- 1885, Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 18:
- (LGBT, countable) A lesbian whose appearance, identity etc. is seen as feminine as opposed to butch. [from 20th c.]
- 2013, Michelle Gibson, Deborah Meem, Femme/Butch, p. 103:
- I love butches, though. I dated a femme once. That was wrong on so many levels.
- 2013, Michelle Gibson, Deborah Meem, Femme/Butch, p. 103:
Antonyms
- (LGBT): butch
Adjective
femme (comparative more femme, superlative most femme)
- (chiefly Canada, US, journalism, entertainment) Pertaining to a femme; feminine, female. [from 20th c.]
- 2009, Jeff Apter, Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story:
- Admittedly, Kiedis was concerned about the lack of femme rockers on the bill: the only women featured were in British band Lush, who would open each day's festivities before a few hundred curious onlookers.
- 2019, Summer Brennan, The Guardian, 20 March:
- High heels are something like neckties for women, in that it can be harder to look both formal and femme without them.
- 2009, Jeff Apter, Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story:
- (chiefly derogatory) Effeminate (of a man). [from 20th c.]
- Characteristic of a feminine lesbian. [from 20th c.]
- Her style was more femme than butch.
Antonyms
- (LGBT): butch
French
Etymology
From Middle French femme, from Old French fame, femme, feme, from Latin fēmina, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-éh₂ (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”), derivation of the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck, suckle”). Various spellings such as feme, fame and fenme were used in Old French.
See cognates in regional languages in France: Norman fame, Gallo fame, Picard fanme, Bourguignon fonne, Franco-Provençal fèna, Occitan femna, Corsican femina.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fam/
audio (file) - Rhymes: -am
Noun
femme f (plural femmes)
- woman
- 1868, Comte de Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror
- Ta grandeur morale, image de l’infini, est immense comme la réflexion du philosophe, comme l’amour de la femme, comme la beauté divine de l’oiseau, comme les méditations du poète. Tu es plus beau que la nuit. Réponds-moi, océan, veux-tu être mon frère ?
- Your moral grandeur, image of infinity, is as vast as the philosopher's reflections, as woman's love, as the divine beauty of the bird, as the meditations of the poet. You are more beautiful than the night. Answer me, ocean, will you be my brother ?
- Ta grandeur morale, image de l’infini, est immense comme la réflexion du philosophe, comme l’amour de la femme, comme la beauté divine de l’oiseau, comme les méditations du poète. Tu es plus beau que la nuit. Réponds-moi, océan, veux-tu être mon frère ?
- 1868, Comte de Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror
- wife
- 1880, Émile Zola, Nana
- Ce fut le soir du mariage à l'église que le comte Muffat se présenta dans la chambre de sa femme, où il n'était pas entré depuis deux ans.
- It was on the night of the wedding at the church that Count Muffat appeared in his wife's bedroom, which he had not entered for two years past.
- Ce fut le soir du mariage à l'église que le comte Muffat se présenta dans la chambre de sa femme, où il n'était pas entré depuis deux ans.
- 1880, Émile Zola, Nana
Synonyms
Related terms
Descendants
Further reading
- “femme” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French fame, femme, feme, from Latin femina, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-éh₂ (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”), derivation of the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck, suckle”). Various spellings such as feme, fame and fenme were used in Old French.
Synonyms
- (woman): dame
Norman
Etymology
From Old French femme, feme, fame, fenme, from Latin fēmina, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥n-eh₂ (“who sucks”), derivation of the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck, suckle”).
Old French
Poitevin-Saintongeais
Further reading
- Pierre Rézeau, Le "Vocabulaire poitevin" (1808–1825) de Lubin Mauduyt: Édition critique (1994)