喜樂美語

核心畫面

One way to picture it: the word simply points at the female side of things — being a woman, a woman's life and roles — and only after that does it stretch into 'the qualities people associate with women' and into grammar.

這個字先是一個很單純的指認——「屬於女性那一邊的」。指的是身為女人這件事本身，以及女人的生活、經歷、角色。從這個中性…更多收起這個字先是一個很單純的指認——「屬於女性那一邊的」。指的是身為女人這件事本身，以及女人的生活、經歷、角色。從這個中性的指認出發，它才長出第二層（人們心裡覺得「女人味」的那些特質：柔、輕、細）和第三層（文法上被分進「陰性」那一組的字）。先記住底層是「女性這一邊」，其他兩層都是從這裡各自伸出去的。

From the word’s history

From Latin fēmina 'woman' plus the adjective ending -īnus, so literally 'of a woman'.

來自拉丁文 fēmina「女人」，加上形容詞字尾 -īnus，字面就是「屬於女人的」。知道這點很有用：feminine 的底層其實只是「女人的」這個中性指認，那些「柔美、纖細」的聯想是後來社會加上去的，不在字根裡。這也解釋了為什麼文法上的 feminine 完全不涉及柔美——它只是沿用「女性那一組」的標籤。

Wiktionary 'feminine' etymology tree (Latin fēmina + -īnus)

Three branches

屬於女性的

這一族就是核心本身：單純指「女性那一邊的」。

relating to women · adjective · C1

Relating to being female, or to the experience, roles, or views of women.

女性的

被視為女人味的特質

從「屬於女性的」這個中性指認，滑向「人們覺得女性應該有的樣子」：從指認身分變成描述氣質。

gently womanly · adjective · C1

Having a gentle, pretty, or soft quality that people often treat as typical of women.

陰柔的

文法上的陰性

這是把「女性那一組」當成純標籤借去用：語法學家沿用了男/女的名稱來命名詞類，名字留著，但裡面已經跟性別脫鉤了。

grammatical gender · adjective · C1

Used about a noun, pronoun, or other word that belongs to the 'female' word group in some languages, with different endings from the male group or the 'neither' group.

陰性

原始詞典資料12 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

feminineadj/ˈfɛmɪnɪn/

  • 1

    Of or pertaining to the female gender.

  • 2

    Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male.

  • 3

    Belonging to females; typically used by females.

    • Mary, Elizabeth, and Edith are feminine names.
  • 4

    Having the qualities stereotypically associated with women: nurturing, not aggressive, sensual; womanly.

    • Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine.
    • Her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace.
  • 5

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsOf, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.

  • 6

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsOf, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions.

    • Women's names were formed in the same way as men's, but with feminine terminations […]
  • 7

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsHaving the vowel harmony of a front vowel.

  • 8

    human-scienceslinguisticsphonologyFollowing or ending on an unstressed syllable.

    • Feminine caesura, feminine catalexis, feminine ending, feminine rhyme.

femininenoun/ˈfɛmɪnɪn/

  • 1

    That which is feminine.

  • 2

    obsoleterareA woman.

    • They guide the feminines toward the Pallace.
  • 3

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsThe feminine gender.

  • 4

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsA word of the feminine gender.

    • These changes being understood, it is easy to see how inaccurate it is to talk of she being the feminine, and they being the plural, of he. The different words belong to dif­fer­ent systems, and are no more the masculines and feminines of one another, than (to use a well-known illustration) puss is the vocative case of cat.

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。