femininity

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle English femynynytee, femyninytee, variants of femynyte (archaic modern English feminity), equivalent to feminine +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /fɛmɪˈnɪnɪti/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Hyphenation: fem‧i‧nin‧i‧ty

Noun

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femininity (usually uncountable, plural femininities)

  1. The sum of all attributes that are feminine or convey womanhood.
    Synonyms: feminineness, womanlikeness
    Antonyms: manlikeness, masculinity
    • 2005 April 17, Francine Rose, “'The Peabody Sisters': Reflected Glory”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      It's almost eerie, in the wake of the Lawrence Summers controversy, to encounter the words of an earlier Harvard president, John Kirkland, a "friend and mentor" of Elizabeth's, who advised her that if any woman "is raised by genius and knowledge above the level of her sex, her neglect of attention appropriate to the best half of creation, attentions called femininities, will more than counterbalance all her advantages and reduce her below other women."
    • 2012, Jo Reger, Everywhere and Nowhere, page 160:
      One outcome of the idea of fluid masculinity and femininity is the notion of genderqueerness.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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