different between femina vs mulier

Esperanto

Etymology

From femino (“woman”) +? -a.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fe?mina/
• Hyphenation: fe?min?a
• Rhymes: -ina

Adjective

femina (accusative singular feminan, plural feminaj, accusative plural feminajn)

1. feminine (of women), women's

   Synonym: virina

Usage notes

Relatively uncommon; the synonym virina is generally used instead.

Ido

Etymology

Borrowed from English feminine, French féminin, Italian femminile, Spanish femenino, from Latin f?min?nus from f?mina (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?eh?-m?n-eh? (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”).

Adjective

femina

1. female, feminine

Antonyms

• maskula (“male, masculine”)

Derived terms

• femino (“female”)
• feminala (“female”)
• feminalo (“feminine gender”)
• feminismo (“feminism”)

Interlingua

Noun

femina (plural feminas)

1. woman

Latin

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *f?man?, from Proto-Indo-European *d?eh?-m?h?n-éh? (“(the one) nursing, breastfeeding”), the feminine mediopassive participle of *d?eh?(y)- (“to suck, suckle”). Related to f?lius, fell?, f?tus.

Alternative forms

• foemina (Medieval Latin)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?fe?.mi.na/, [?fe?m?nä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?fe.mi.na/, [?f??min?]

Noun

f?mina f (genitive f?minae); first declension

1. woman
   • 19 B.C.E., Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid, I, 361-364.

     conveniunt, quibus aut odium crudele tyranni
     aut metus acer erat; navis, quae forte paratae,
     corripiunt, onerantque auro: portantur avari
     Pygmalionis opes pelago; dux femina facti.

     Those came together that either felt ruthless hate or bitter fear for their tyrant. They seized ships that had incidentally already been arranged and loaded them with gold. The treasures of avaricious Pygmalion were carried to the sea; the leader of the action was a woman.

2. wife
3. (of animals) female
   • 45 B.C.E., Marcus Tullius Cicero, De natura deorum, II, 128.

4. (grammar) the feminine gender

Declension

First-declension noun.

Synonyms

• (woman): mulier, vira (hapax, mentioning Old Latin)
• (wife): uxor
• (grammar): genus f?min?num

Coordinate terms

• m?s

Derived terms

Descendants

• Corsican: femina
• Dalmatian: femia
• Eastern Romance:
  • Aromanian: feamin
  • Romanian: famen
• Old Francoprovençal: fenna
  • Franco-Provençal: fenna
• Istriot: fimana
• Italian: femmina
• Neapolitan: femmena
• Old French: fame, fam, feme
  • Bourbonnais-Berrichon: fonne
  • Bourguignon: fanne, fonne
  • Champenois: fanme, fonme, fomme
  • Gallo: fame, fom
  • Lorrain: fomme
  • Middle French: femme
    • French: femme
      • Antillean Creole: fanm
      • Guianese Creole: fanm
      • Haitian Creole: fanm
      • Karipúna Creole French: fam
      • Louisiana Creole French: fam, fenm
      • Seychellois Creole: fanm
  • Norman: femme, fâme, faume, faumme, foume, fenme
  • Picard: fanme, féme, feume
  • Walloon: feme
  • ? Middle English: femme, feme
    • English: femme, feme
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: fema
• Old Occitan: femna, feme
  • Catalan: fembra
  • Occitan: femna, hemna, frema
• Old Portuguese: femea, fem?a
  • Galician: femia
  • Portuguese: fêmea
    • Kabuverdianu: fémia
• Old Spanish: femna, fembra
  • Spanish: hembra
• Piedmontese: fumna
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: femine
  • Ladin: femena
  • Romansch: femna
• Sardinian: fémina
• Sicilian: fìmmina
• Venetian: fémena
• ? Albanian: femër, femën
• ? Spanish: fémina

Etymology 2

See femur.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?fe.mi.na/, [?f?m?nä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?fe.mi.na/, [?f??min?]

Noun

femina

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of femur

Etymology 3

Inflected form of femin?.

Verb

femin?

1. second-person singular present active imperative of femin?

References

• f?m?na in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• femina in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• femina in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• f?m?na in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

English

Etymology

From Latin mulier (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mju?.l??/

Noun

mulier (plural muliers)

1. (law, historical) Lawful issue born in wedlock, in distinction from an elder brother born of the same parents before their marriage.
   • 1908, Alfred John Horwood, Luke Owen Pike, Year books of the reign of King Edward the Third: Volume 15

     Or suppose an inquest were taken between us, and it were found that they are muliers, for which reason the voucher stood, and they came and pleaded the same exception to escape from warranting as heirs, then two inquests would be taken […]

2. (obsolete) A woman; a wife or mother.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Blount to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowell to this entry?)

Related terms

• muliebrity

Anagrams

• Muriel

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *moljes, of uncertain origin; it has been proposed that it might derive from mollior, comparative of mollis (“soft, tender”), while others propose it might be akin to mulgere and therefore mean “the milk-giver”

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?mu.li.er/, [?m?li?r]
• (Vulgar) IPA^(key): /m??l?.?r/, [m????i??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?mu.li.er/, [?mu?li?r]

Noun

mulier f (genitive mulieris); third declension

1. a woman, female

   Synonyms: f?mina, (hapax, mentioning, Old Latin) vira
2. (by extension) a wife

   Synonym: uxor

3. (figuratively) a coward, poltroon
4. (Medieval Latin) a virgin adult

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Usage notes

Nota bene: A mulier was a woman who was married in contrast with a virgo (“unmarried woman of a marriageable age”). Thus, if a noble young girl of age 12 got married, she would be called a mulier even though by today's standards, we would not call a pre-teen girl a "woman".In contrast, if a common young woman of age 19 or 21 was still unmarried, she often was still called a virgo despite being much older than that very young noble girl married right after bleeding for the first time.

Clearly, if an older woman for whatever reason was not married off, she could be called a mulier too, so it is not a term used exclusively for married women.

Derived terms

Descendants

References

• mulier in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mulier in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mulier in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette