effœminate

English

Etymology

Compare Latin fœmina, medieval form of fēmina, whence effēminātus; medieval form: effœminātus.

Adjective

effœminate (comparative more effœminate, superlative most effœminate)

1. Obsolete spelling of effeminate
   • 1630, George Hakewill, An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World. Consisting in an Examination and Censure of the Common Errour Touching Natures Perpetuall and Vniversall Decay, Divided into Foure Bookes., Oxford: […] William Turner, pages 412 and 417:

     Their effœminate ſoftnes and nicenes in regard to their bodies, Seneca hath well both obſerued and cenſured: […] Now if their men were herein thus effœminate, wee may well conceiue their women exceeded more: […]

   • 1679, Thomas May, transl., Lucans Pharsalia: or, The Civil Wars of Rome, Between Pompey the Great, and Julius Cæsar, London: […] Peter Parker:

     Bring well known hands, keep forraine beaſts from you, / If Pompeys far-fam’d name deſerve to be / The crime of Cæſar, feares not Ptolomey / The ruine of that name: or when the sky / Thunders, dar’ſt thou, effœminate Ptolomey, / Inſert thy prophane hands? to terrify / Thee, King, a Romans name enough ſhould be, / Without that worth that did the world controll: […] When Cnejus heard theſe words, his inward woe / In paſſionate teares, and ſighs he could not ſhow; / But thus inflam’d with pious rage gan ſpeake, / Lanch forth the fleet, ſailers, with ſpeed, and breake / Through the croſſe winds a paſſage with the oare, / Brave Captaines follow me, never before / Knew civill war more worthy ends then theſe, / T’interre unbury’d Manes, and appeaſe / Pompey with ſlaughter of th’effœminate boy.

   • 1682, Βασιλικον Δωρον. Or, King James’s Instructions to His Dearest Sonne, Henry the Prince, London: […] M. Flesher, for Joseph Hindmarsh, page 86:

     In your language be plaine, honeſt, naturall, comely, cleane, ſhort, and ſentencious: eſchew both the extremities, aſwell in not uſing any ruſtical corrupt leide, as booke-language, and penne and inke-horne tearmes: and leaſt of al mignarde and effœminate tearmes.

Verb

effœminate (third-person singular simple present effœminates, present participle effœminating, simple past and past participle effœminated)

1. Obsolete spelling of effeminate
   • 1612, M. Lok, “The 5. Decade of Peter Martyr a Millanoise of Angleria, dedicated to Pope Adrian the sixt”, in De Nouo Orbe, or The Historie of the West Indies, Contayning the Actes and Aduentures of the Spanyardes, Which Haue Conquered and Peopled Those Countries, Inriched with Varietie of Pleasant Relation of the Manners, Ceremonies, Lawes, Gouernments, and Warres of the Indians, London: […] Thomas Adams, page 216:

     So doe they likewiſe of Pepper, Ginger, Cinnamon, and other Spices which effœminate the mindes of menn, needeles, and vnneceſſary allurements: […]

   • 1716, W[illiam] T[unstall], Ballads and Some Other Occasional Poems, London: […] E. Berington, page 34:

     Then ſhall an Active, Brave, Heroick Breed, / To this effœminated Race ſucceed;

   • 1734, Francis Clifton, Hippocrates upon Air, Water, and Situation; upon Epidemical Diseases; and upon Prognosticks, in Acute Cases Especially. To This Is Added (by Way of Comparison) Thucydides’s Account of the Plague of Athens. The Whole Translated, Methodis’d, and Illustrated with Useful and Explanatory Notes., London: […] J. Watts, pages 23 and 25:

     The Fruits they have there never come to perfection, but are cramp’d in their growth, and as it were effœminated, by the vaſt quantity of Water. […] as if their mind was mollify’d or their paſſions effœminated, for want of skill or exerciſe in war, or from overmuch lazineſs.