| 释义 |
femininity|fɛmɪˈnɪnɪtɪ|
[ME. femininite, f. as prec. + -ity. Cf. Fr. femininité.]
1. Feminine quality; the characteristic quality or assemblage of qualities pertaining to the female sex, womanliness; in early use also, female nature.
c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 262 O serpent under femynynytee. 14..Lydg. Temple of Glas 1045 Hir face, of femyny[ni]te: Thuruȝ honest drede abaisshed so was she. c1430Compleynt 326 ibid. App. 63 In whame yche vertue is at rest..Prudence and femynynytee. 1835Blackw. Mag. XXXVII. 230 She was all that my most romantic dreams had fancied of femininity. 1893Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 4/2 What she [the American woman] conspicuously lacks, on the other hand, is essential femininity.
concr.a1876G. Dawson Biog. Lect. (1886) 194 A perfect femininity of architecture, the Venus of Gothic creation.
2. In depreciative sense: Womanishness.
1863E. L. Swifte in N. & Q. 3rd Ser. IV. 264 A certain femininity, which our patresfamilias call changeableness. 1879T. P. O'Connor Beaconsfield 136 Features delicate almost to femininity. 1855Manch. Exam. 22 July 3/1 The femininity of Fénelon's nature.
3. In applied senses:
a. The fact of being a female.
b. Feminine peculiarity (in shape).
1867Morn. Star 26 Nov., There is no doubt of her femininity, though her counterfeit of a man is..perfect. 1891Pall Mall G. 2 June 2/1 A part for which the exuberant femininity of her physique obviously disqualifies her.
4. concr. Women in general; womankind.
1865Daily Tel. 12 Apr. 7 Crinoline..has..enlightened us respecting the not faultless ankles of femininity. 1878Mrs. J. H. Riddell Mother's Darl. II. xv. 134 She had changed..into a tenderer and softened specimen of femininity. |