femme

Etymology

In the legal and heraldic sense, used in Middle English femme, feme, from Old French fame, etc. The modern spelling is under the influence of Middle and Modern French femme.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛm/

Noun

femme (plural femmes)

1. (slang, LGBT, countable) A feminine lesbian, especially one who is attracted to masculine (butch) lesbians.
2. (LGBT, countable) A person who expresses feminine-associated behaviours (not necessarily bound to traditional roles of femininity), interactions and political views, or one (such as a non-binary person) who expresses a more feminine- than masculine-associated identity.
3. (archaic, rare) A woman, a wife, particularly in heraldry.
   • 1885, Richard 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."

Adjective

femme (comparative more femme, superlative most femme)

1. Characteristic of a feminine lesbian.

   Her style was more femme than butch.

2. Pertaining to an identity that is expressed through feminine-associated behaviours (not necessarily bound to traditional roles of femininity), interactions and political views, or that is expressed through more such feminine- than masculine-associated behaviours.

See also

• en femme

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)

1. 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 ?

2. 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.

Further reading

• “femme” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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.

Noun

femme f (plural femmes)

1. wife
2. woman (female adult human being)

Alternative forms

• fâme, faume, faumme (Guernsey)
• foume (continental Normandy)
• fenme (Cotentin)

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”).

Noun

femme f (plural femmes)

1. (Jersey, France) wife
2. (Jersey, France) woman

Noun

femme f (oblique plural femmes, nominative singular femme, nominative plural femmes)

1. Alternative form of fame

Etymology

Latin femina.

Noun

femme

1. woman

   en boune femme

   a good woman

Further reading

• Pierre Rézeau, Le "Vocabulaire poitevin" (1808–1825) de Lubin Mauduyt: Édition critique (1994)