Where does “female” come from?
Female comes from Middle English femelle, from Old French femele, from Latin femella meaning "young woman or female animal," derived from the diminutive suffix -lus and Proto-Indo-European dʰeh₁(y)- meaning "to suckle."
female (English): Belonging to the sex which typically produces...
Definitions
- Belonging to the sex which typically produces...
Ancestry of “female”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | female | — |
| 2 | Middle English | femelle | — |
| 3 | Old French | femelle | female |
| 4 | Medieval Latin | femella | a female; girl, young woman; vocative singular of... |
| 5 | Latin | femella | girl, young woman; vocative singular of femella;... |
| 6 | Latin | -lus | Alternative form of -ulus; diminutive suffix |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |