different between manliness vs masculine

English

Etymology

From Middle English manlynes, manlynesse, equivalent to manly +? -ness.

Noun

manliness (usually uncountable, plural manlinesses)

1. The quality of being manly; the set of qualities, traits and abilities considered appropriate to men (as opposed to women or children); similarity to a man.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book V, Canto Eight, Stanza 1,^[1]

     Nought under Heaven so strongly doth allure

     The Sense of Man, and all his Mind possess,

     As Beauty’s lovely Bait, that doth procure

     Great Warriors oft their Rigour to repress;

     And mighty Hands forget their Manliness,

   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, lines 379-384,^[2]

     With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes,

     And blessed the cot where every pleasure rose;

     And kissed her thoughtless babes with many a tear,

     And clasped them close, in sorrow doubly dear;

     Whilst her fond husband strove to lend relief

     In all the silent manliness of grief.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, Chapter 66,^[3]

     ‘He he!’ simpered Brass, who, in his deep debasement, really seemed to have changed sexes with his sister, and to have made over to her any spark of manliness he might have possessed.

   • 1927, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, Chapter 1,^[4]

     […] there was in all their minds a mute questioning of deference and chivalry, of the Bank of England and the Indian Empire, of ringed fingers and lace, though to them all there was something in this of the essence of beauty, which called out the manliness in their girlish hearts, and made them, as they sat at table beneath their mother's eyes, honour her strange severity […]

   • 1958, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, London: William Heinemann, Chapter 4,

     Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.

2. (euphemistic, rare) Male genitals.
   • 2013, Doug Speirs, “Why you shouldn’t call me Mr. Fix It,” Winnipeg Free Press, 28 May, 2013,^[5]

     Dressed only in flip-flops and a fuzzy blue bathrobe, which would be long enough on the mayor of Munchkin Land but on me is literally indecent, I attack the mower in a yanking frenzy, flailing around until the dramatic conclusion, wherein the mower refuses to start even though it is confronted by the full extent of my manliness because my too-short robe has flapped open in a cloud of flying sweat and hurled profanity.

Synonyms

• (the quality of being manly): manfulness, mannishness, maleness
• (male genitals): manhood

Antonyms

• unmanliness
• womanliness

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• m., m (abbreviation, grammar)

Etymology

From Middle English masculyne, masculyn, from Old French masculin, from Latin mascul?nus, diminutive of masculus (“male, manly”), itself a diminutive of m?s (“male”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?mæskj?l?n/, /?mæskj?l?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?mæskjul?n/, /?mæskj?l?n/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?mæskj?l?n/

Adjective

masculine (comparative more masculine, superlative most masculine)

1. Of or pertaining to the male gender; manly.
2. Of or pertaining to the male sex; biologically male, not female.

   Synonym: male

   Antonyms: female, womanly

3. Belonging to males; typically used by males.

4. Having the qualities stereotypically associated with men: virile, aggressive, not effeminate.
   • 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the state of Europe during the Middle ages

     That lady, after her husband's death, held the reins with a masculine energy.

   • […] a masculine church.

   Synonyms: manly, virile

   Antonyms: effeminate, emasculated, epicene, unmanly

5. (grammar) Of, pertaining or belonging to the male grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.
   1. (of a noun) Being of the masculine class, or grammatical gender, and inflected in that manner.

   2. (of some other parts of speech) Being inflected in agreement with the masculine noun.

   Coordinate terms: feminine, neuter

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

masculine (plural masculines)

1. (grammar) The masculine gender.
2. (grammar) A word of the masculine gender.
3. That which is masculine.
4. (rare, possibly obsolete) A man.

Translations

Anagrams

• calumnies, manicules, semuncial

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mas.ky.lin/

Adjective

masculine

1. feminine singular of masculin

Latin

Adjective

mascul?ne

1. vocative masculine singular of mascul?nus

References

• masculine in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• masculine in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mas.ku?li.ne]

Adjective

masculine

1. feminine plural nominative of masculin
2. feminine plural accusative of masculin
3. neuter plural nominative of masculin
4. neuter plural accusative of masculin