Where does “femaleness” come from?
Femaleness derives from English female plus the Middle English suffix -nesse, from Old English -nes, ultimately from Latin femella meaning little woman, with the diminutive suffix -lus.
femaleness (English): The characteristic, state or condition of being...
Definitions
- The characteristic, state or condition of being...
Ancestry of “femaleness”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | female | Belonging to the sex which typically produces... |
| 2 | Middle English | female | — |
| 3 | Middle English | femelle | — |
| 4 | Old French | femelle | female |
| 5 | Medieval Latin | femella | a female; girl, young woman; vocative singular of... |
| 6 | Latin | femella | girl, young woman; vocative singular of femella;... |
| 7 | Latin | -lus | Alternative form of -ulus; diminutive suffix |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -elos | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |