muliebrity

Etymology

From Latin muliebritās, from muliēbris (“womanly, feminine”), from mulier (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mjuːliˈɛbɹɪti/

Noun

muliebrity (countable and uncountable, plural muliebrities)

1. The state or quality of being a woman, the features of woman's nature.
   • ca 1693, Thomas Urquhart, Rabelais, page 3:32:270:

     Individual Womanishness or Muliebrity.

   • 1904, H.B. Marriott-Watson, “The American Woman: An Analysis”, in James Knowles, editor, The Nineteenth Century and After, volume 56, page 435:

     This permanence of muliebrity serves to indicate the requirements of natural law.

   • 1996, Joni Arredia, Muliebrity: Qualities of a Woman
2. The coordinate term to virility, in an analogy with the coordinate terms of femininity and masculinity.
   • 1922, Beckles Willson, England, page 182:

     both principles are necessary to a nation,--that in proportion as the muliebrity of the one sex declines, the virility of the other also lessens

3. Femininity, specifically the feminine form of an adult woman.
   • 1888, Bret Harte, Phyllis of Sierras, page 2:1:169:

     This tall […] woman […] possessed a refined muliebrity superior to mere liberality of contour.

4. Attainment of womanhood; (medicine) state of puberty in a female
   • 1997, Julie Haurykiewicz, “From Mules to Muliebrity: Speech and Silence in Their Eyes Were Watching God”, in Southern Literary Journal, volume 29, page 45:

     Janie's story of personal growth may be charted as one that travels from mules to muliebrity.

5. A state of womanhood, in contrast to maidenhood.
   • 1870, ʻAlī ibn Abī Bakr Marghīnānī, Charles Hamilton, Standish Grove Grady, “Divorce”, in The Hedaya, or Guide, 2nd edition, page 127:

     Where she was married as a virgin, she is to be examined [and] if they declare her muliebrity, […] her right to separation [on complaint of her husband's impotence] is defeated