culture of death

en-noun

culture of death (plural cultures of death)

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(theology) In moral theology, the concept that human life can be a means to some other end and not solely an end itself.

cywilizacja śmierci

(philosophy, politics) In contemporary political and philosophical discourse, a culture asserted to be inconsistent with the concept of a "culture of life", such as cultures that support contraception and abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, human cloning, self-absorption, apathy or poverty.

სიკვდილის კულტურა

in contemporary political and philosophical discourse, a culture that is deemed to be inconsistent with the concept of a "culture of life"

But can one nevertheless regard suicide bombing as an expression of the political culture—the culture of death—that has emerged in modern times in the Middle East?

2007, Talal Asad, On Suicide Bombing, Columbia University Press, page 50:

Still, with ... each individual case ... of individual suicide bombers ... it seems that we have to acknowledge first of all that there is a larger pattern of a culture of death

2007, Israel W. Charny, Fighting Suicide Bombing: A Worldwide Campaign for Life, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 77:

Suicide bombings ... were still wrong because such reasoning promotes a culture of death and nihilism that will take years to erase from the Palestinian narrative

2009, Joshua Craze, Mark Huband, The Kingdom: Saudi Arabia and the Challenge of the 21st Century, Hurst Publishers, page 289:

A society that reveres suicide bombers as martyrs.


farmwife

Farm life is beautiful, my friends, when well and rightly lived. And the very word Farmwife has grown sweeter with the years. Long ago I resented the imputation implied. Today, I say "yes" to the charge, and add that "of the distinction I'm proud." Are not you?

1895, Nellie Hawks, “Farm-life, farm-wife, and fancier”, in S.C. Bassett, editor, Annual Report of the Nebraska Dairymen's Association, published 1896, page 155:

The wife in a married couple engaged in farming; a wife who shares in the duties of farming, such as farm management, homemaking on the farm, fieldwork, sales and marketing, or other work.


cyberfeminist

[…] discussion of prostitution on the Internet (which also includes consideration of pornography from a cyberfeminist perspective) […]

2001, David Wall, Crime and the Internet:

Some cyberfeminist activists, in particular radical feminists on Tumblr, have been labeled “Social Justice Warriors” (SJWs) and are often scrutinized by mainstream feminist movements and popular culture.

2015, Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Feminist Theory and Pop Culture, page 125:


cyberfeminist

If I'd rather be a cyberfeminist than a goddess, I'd damned well better know why, and be willing to say so.

2001, Hilary Robinson, Feminism-art-theory: An Anthology, 1968-2000:


cyberfeminism

cyberfeminism (countable and uncountable, plural cyberfeminisms)

Because of its similarity to what is often referred to as "liberal feminism" in the non-virtual world, I identify this perspective as liberal cyberfeminism.

1996, Susan C Herring, Computer-mediated Communication:

At the opening to On the Matrix: Cyberfeminist Simulations, Plant says that cyber-feminism—and/or the complex systems and virtual worlds upon which it is based—has the capacity to undermine the ‘world view and material reality of two thousand years of patriarchal control’.

1997, Caroline Bassett, quoting Sadie Plant, “With a Little Help from Our (New) Friends”, in Mute, volume 1, number 8, →ISSN:

Cyberfeminism is an attempt by feminists to own a part of the computer revolution, where the field of computer science has established a resistant, male center of power.

2008, Sue Vilhauer Rosser, Women, Science, and Myth:

A community, philosophy and set of practices concerned with feminist acts in cyberspace.


vernix caseosa

From Latin vernix (“varnish”) + caseosa (“cheesy”).

1888 Austin Flint: A Text-book of human physiology
The protecting coat of vernix caseosa allows the skin to perform its office in utero, and at birth, when this coating is removed, the surface is found in a condition perfectly adapted to extrauterine existence. It is not probable that the vernix caseosa is necessary to facilitate the passage of the child into the world, for the parts of the mother are always sufficiently lubricated with mucous secretion.

1983 Carol Laderman: Wives and Midwives: Childbirth and Nutrition in Rural Malaysia
She rubbed his body with coconut oil to remove the vernix caseosa. A heavy coating of vernix caseosa, she told me later, is a sure sign that the couple have been having intercourse during the latter part of pregnancy, a practice she considers dangerous. She believes the white vernix caseosa to be an accumulation of semen.

(obstetrics, medecine) The waxy or "cheesy" white substance found coating the skin of newborn humans.


golf widow

It is claimed that the next best thing a golf widow can do if she cannot fill her lonely hours with croquet is to assume a devout interest in her husband's game.

1900 August 12, “Women Here and There”, in New York Times, page 15:

"It's about being a golf widow," shrugged Rita. "What do women do when their husbands are playing golf?"

2003 October 6, Tessa Boase, “In search of the best spas”, in The Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2008-12-14:

(idiomatic) A woman who is deprived of her husband's time and attention due to his regular absence in order to play golf.


naunt

From rebracketing of phrases an aunt, mine aunt. Compare nuncle.

(nonstandard, proscribed, dated) aunt, mine aunt


bit of skirt

I never heard a word about a bit of skirt. Not like some blokes you meet — they're born out of one and they try to spend the rest of their lives getting back in.

2000, Roy Holland, Just a Bit Touched: Tales of Perspective, page 44:

Rosemary overheard him say that he did not usually grace such functions with his presence, but had been dragged along one January evening with the promise of a 'nice bit of skirt'.

2012, Jane Roberts, Triple Challenge: '69 to '70, page 24:

He slapped the visor back into place. “Tired?” Baldwin asked. “A bit. This case, you know. Been keeping me up all hours for weeks. Your bit of skirt is quite the woman, isn't she?” Memphis asked.

(UK slang, offensive) A woman, when regarded as a sexual object.


millionairess

A woman whose wealth is greater than one million dollars, or the local currency; a female millionaire.


spinner

From Middle English spynnere; equivalent to spin + -er.

Now, Cher was a spinner. Spinner is slang for a petite “chez chez la femme” who loved to assume the dominate sexual position on top. In other words, one could take a spinner and turn her around rapidly thus creating a circular motion and a geometrically induced orgasm.

2007, Hank Miller, The Admiral's Son, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 293:

For example, some johns used the term spinner to refer a petite female. This was exemplified by an exchange in the Dayton forum where individuals discussed the meaning of the term spinner:
 Purplehead: I picked up what looked to be a young thin WSW just south of McDs … She looked really good, about 100 lbs, and very cute, dark hair … a definite spinner..

2009, K.R. Blevins, T.J. Holt, “Examining the virtual subculture of johns”, in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, volume 38, number 5, Sage Publications:

He hadn't dated any Asian girls at Princeton, even though there were tons of them. They tended to be petite, and he wasn't into little girls, "spinners," as Andy called them.

2012, Amy Sohn, Motherland, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 112:

The girl peeking up at him under strawberry[-]blond curls was what men commonly referred to as a “spinner.” Petite, passionate, and pliable...one you could switch into a different sexual position without removing yourself from her heat.
[…]
"I'm going to fuck my little spinner now. She's had it too easy so far."

2014, Tessa Bailey, Staking His Claim, Fort Collins, CO: Entangled Publishing, →ISBN:

[…] petite women, whom he called 'spinners,' because, in comparison to 'heifers,' they are far more manageable.”

2016, LR Penn, The Syzygy, Lulu.com, →ISBN, pages 204–205:

(often vulgar, slang, film) Primarily in the adult film industry, an actress or prostitute with a tiny frame, usually very thin and small-breasted.

He's been telling his army of spinners, and DC and Boy George too, that Radio 4 is for the chattering classes, and only people like Cameron and Miliband tune in to watch Paxo on Newsnight last thing at night.

2011, Larry the Cat, The Larry Diaries: Downing Street - The First 100 Days, page 15:


booth babe

But not every company needed a hottie PR rep or "booth babe" to catch our eye.

And if a female convention specialist doesn't professionally approach the job, then she's "sitting there going, 'I don't know, I'm just a booth babe...

2006, Tom Reichert, Jacqueline Lambiase, Sex in Consumer Culture:

In my opinion, the absolute worst way to generate artificial interest is the tactic that is commonly known as the booth babe.

2006, Eric Sink, Eric Sink on the Business of Software:

A female model hired to represent a product and interact with consumers at a trade fair or similar event.


knock-up

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When will we wake up? I see young girls pregnant and young boys adding up their “knock-ups” like a scorecard at a mob gambling venue.

2016, Veronica Valles, Back To The Center, page 54:


camgirl

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[…] drawing viewer registration fees, selling advertising space, or by inviting viewers to send gifts to the camgirl from a linked wish list.

Some sites even provide directories of camgirl pages, allowing users to search for sites by the camgirl's age, her location […]

[…] a network of singles, pay-for-play camgirl shows, and "interactive 3D sex fantasy games".

2006, Annalee Newitz, Charlie Anders, She's Such a Geek!:

A girl or woman who publishes or broadcasts webcam photographs or videos of herself, often for adult entertainment.

Camgirl

woman who publishes webcam photographs or videos


womynhood

Reclaiming my true womynhood, learning to truly know and love myself and other wimmin has taken time.

1980, Susan J Wolfe, Julia Penelope, The Coming Out Stories:

Indeed, the opera recovers the bound and raped bodies of Afro-Asian womynhood as evidence of the need for a transracial feminist dialectic...

In one brave and defiant performance, she redefined the patriarchal constructions of beauty, femininity, and womynhood for all who saw her.

2008, Laurie J Kendall, The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival:


misoprostol

From m(ethyl) + iso- + -prost- (“prostaglandin”) + -ol.

af

(pharmacology) A drug used for various purposes including the prevention of drug-induced gastric ulcers and the inducement of abortions, having the chemical formula C₂₂H₃₈O₅.

misoprostol

drug used for the prevention of drug-induced gastric ulcers and the inducement of abortions


weaker vessel

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Peter 3:7:

Certainly, when Satan first made the Attempt upon Eve, he did not think he should have so easily conquered her. . . . Well might she be said to be the weaker Vessel, tho’ Adam himself had little enough to say for his being the stronger.

1727, Daniel Defoe, chapter 8, in The Political History of the Devil:

When women are the advisers, the lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do. Then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it. If it fails, they generously give her the whole.

1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 41, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

(idiomatic, dated, now offensive) A woman; women collectively.


fair sex

The younger Gentry, or Dons, to express their Gallantry, carry about them Egg-shells, fill'd with Orange or other sweet Water, which they cast at Ladies in their Coaches, or such other of the fair Sex as they happen to meet in the Streets.

1728, Daniel Defoe, chapter 8, in Military Memoirs of Capt. George Carleton:

"Permit me rather to perform my duty in attending them," said Roland, anxious to show he was possessed of the high tone of deference prescribed by the rules of chivalry towards the fair sex, and especially to dames and maidens of quality.

1820, [Walter Scott], chapter 23, in The Abbot. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC:

Our entrance was attended with the usual ceremony, now familiar to the reader: the warmen danced, shot, and shouted, a rabble of adults, youths and boys crowded upon us, the fair sex lulliloo'd with vigor[.]

1881, Bayard Taylor, The Lake Regions of Central Africa, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 147:

“Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department,” said Holmes, with a smile, when the dwindling frou-frou of skirts had ended in the slam of the front door.

1904 December, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Second Stain”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

And he had his friends among the fair sex—not lovers, friends.

1913–1921, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Blind Man”, in England My England and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, published 24 October 1922, →OCLC, page 89:

(idiomatic, dated, now sometimes offensive) Women collectively.


ponygirl

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(BDSM) A woman, usually submissive, who takes the role of a pony; this typically includes wearing tack such as a bridle and bit


little brown fucking machine

en-noun

little brown fucking machine (plural little brown fucking machines)

Mack soon learned that this new bit of colonialist lingo stood for "Little Brown Fucking Machine." It was more convenient to abbreviate […]

And we still have soldiers who call us "a little brown fucking machine fueled by rice.

1996, Mary John Mananzan, J Shannon Clarkson, Letty Russell, Women Resisting Violence: Spirituality for Life:

What about that little brown fucking machine? She's got a nice body, a nice attitude; she takes care of herself. I figured you'd like her.

A Little Brown Fucking Machine is not unsexed by prostituting, she is "just doing what comes naturally."

1999, Kamala Kempadoo, Sun, Sex, and Gold:

After Wes forced the split between Jeri and Captain America, he started dating her and dangling a possible dalliance with the Little Brown Fucking Machine […]

LBFM is Navy speak for Little Brown Fucking Machine. They are the bar girls sailors meet in all the ports in the Orient. The term is generic for bar girls […]

(US, navy, vulgar, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Southeast Asian woman regarded as a sex object.


pregorexia

2008, Jane Bainbridge, "Pregorexia: body image over baby?" (article), in British Journal of Midwifery, Volume 16, Issue 9, September 4 2008, page 608.

Pregorexia came on the radar in 2006 when former TV presenter Liz Fraser told Marie Claire magazine about her struggle with bulimia during pregnancy.

2009 July 7, Kevin Courtney, “Pregorexia”, in The Irish Times:

Her dramatic weight loss meant Mrs Bassett had to be taken into hospital when just 11 weeks pregnant. Evan was born early at 30 weeks, but her ‘pregorexia’ left her too frail to care for him until he was 14 months old.

2012 March 2, Alison Smith-Squire, “The 'pregorexic' mother whose weight plummeted to FOUR STONE because she was so worried about getting fat during pregnancy”, in Daily Mail:

Pregorexia, or 'mommyrexia', as they dub it Stateside, is a growing disorder: women exercising madly all through the pregnancy (there are now scores of websites devoted to selling workout gear for pregnant women, while sizes for maternity clothes these days often include an extra-small, which would be impossibly tiny even for the average non-pregnant woman), […]

2013, Emily Hourican, How to (Really) Be a Mother, Gill & Macmillan, →ISBN:

A condition where a pregnant mother is obsessed with being thin.


antiheroine

Since she sprang from the imagination of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1890, this coldhearted antiheroine has maintained a tight grip on the attention of audiences across the globe, outstripping all the many other complicated women in Ibsen’s oeuvre, even the door-slamming Nora of “A Doll’s House”.

2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in New York Times:

(literature, roleplaying games) A female protagonist who proceeds in an unheroic manner, such as by criminal means, via cowardly actions, or for mercenary goals; a female antihero.


stepgrandmother

The stepmother of one's father or mother and the wife of one's grandfather, usually a woman that one's grandfather marries after the divorce of one's grandparents or the death of one's grandmother.

aviastra

stepmother of one's parent and wife of one's grandfather


maenad

From Latin maenas (“bacchant”), from Ancient Greek μαινάς (mainás, “raving, frantic”), from Ancient Greek μαίνομαι (maínomai, “be furious”).

uder

Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad. She was desire.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 30”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

(Greek mythology) A female follower of Dionysus, associated with intense reveling.


supervillainess

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From supervillain + -ess or super- + villainess.

On the everlasting As the World Turns, Lisa was another kind of person, a sort of supervillainess of the soaps. Yet she was always saved from damnation...

1987, Shirley Rogers Radl, Mother's Day is Over:

Disappointingly, Valkyrie turns out really to be the Enchantress, a supervillainess whose intention is the destruction of both sexes.

1996, Trina Robbins, The Great Women Superheroes:

Created by DC Comics and featured in Batman, supervillainess Poison Ivy is a potent femme fatale.

2005, Lois H Gresh, Robert E Weinberg, The Science of Supervillains:


postfeminist

en-adj

postfeminist (comparative more postfeminist, superlative most postfeminist)

more postfeminist (comparative)
most postfeminist (superlative)

This has meant also a postfeminist, postqueer shift toward a different Foucault than the one we were obsessed with in the 1980s and nineties. If we still use him, it is usually for purposes other than sex: the rethinking of race, sovereignty, religion, and nation.

2013, Lynn Huffer, Mad for Foucault: Rethinking the Foundations of Queer Theory:


needlewoman

Rosie learned to sew too and became a good needlewoman, often sitting up with her mother into the night hours.

2002, Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife, Phoenix (2012), page 228:

A woman who works with a needle; a female embroiderer, sewer, etc.


baby-killer

The Vietnam War veteran usage stems from the My Lai massacre (1968), in which hundreds of civilians, including infants, were massacred.

He promised to protect and serve "even a baby killer like yourself," but also to do everything in his office's power "to assist the protesters who wish to protect the misguided mothers who come to your clinic of death."

1999, Charisma and Christian Life, volume 24, numbers 6-11, page 38:

(slang, derogatory) An abortionist (all senses).


beauty queen

(idiomatic) The female winner of a beauty contest.


protofeminist

As Shamas depicts her, Earhart is basically a one-note, protofeminist heroine who pursues adventure "for the fun of it."

1988 April 1, Lawrence Bommer, “Amelia Lives!”, in Chicago Reader:

Preceding but anticipating or laying the groundwork for feminism


natural family planning

Timing sexual intercourse to avoid the time of ovulation (if pregnancy is not wanted) or to fall within that time (if pregnancy is desired).


herdswoman

A woman who tends livestock, especially cows and sheep.


endocervicitis

(medicine) inflammation of the mucous membrane of the uterine cervix


postwoman

(rare) A female letter carrier, a woman who delivers mail.


niddah

I assume you, Josh, are perfect. My description of our ideals on that point match; I publically^([sic]) admitted a personal flaw in my not actually being emotionally in tune with my ideal. I assume you do not worry about the current economy, having perfect bitachon, are never beset with hunger on Yom Kippur, or sexual desire when your wife is a niddah, or otherwise ever have your emotions at odds with your ideals.

2009 April 27, Micha Berger, “Avigdor Lieberman, our realistic new Foreign Minister (Naomi Ragen)”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet):

(Judaism) Someone whom Halacha considers menstruant.


primiparous

From New Latin prīmiparus, from prīmus (“first”) + pariō (“to give birth”).

[The linea nigra] may generally be regarded, especially in a primiparous female, as a certain sign of pregnancy[…]

1857, Pierre Cazeaux, translated by Wm. R. Bullock, A Theoretical and practical treatise on midwifery, Lindsay and Blakiston, page 128:

(obstetrics) Pregnant or giving birth for the first time.


pseudopregnancy

en-noun

pseudopregnancy (countable and uncountable, plural pseudopregnancies)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pseudopregnancy.wav


malestream

en-adj

malestream (comparative more malestream, superlative most malestream)

more malestream (comparative)
most malestream (superlative)

(feminism) Mainstream and usual, from the point of view of the man, though actually biased towards men.


mumsy

1923 October 2, Flora Belle Jan, Going To The Dogs, in The Collegian, Republished in 2008, Fleur Yano (editor), Collected Writings of Flora Belle Jan, Xlibris, page 36,
Such are the captions in newspapers, such compose the subjects for sermons from the pulpit, and such are the problems that are annihilating poor daddies and mumsies, not merely inch by inch, but millimeter by millimeter.

Mumsy had come over to discuss the family party, which she was giving in the form of a Christmas luncheon so the children could come to it.

1938, Margaret Ayer Barnes, Wisdom's Gate, Houghton Mifflin, page 238:

"Is this good to eat, Mumsy?" she asked. Startled at the term "Mumsy" instead of the usual "Mam," Mary Joy cringed a little inside. My child is already losing her Welshness, she mourned inwardly.

2009, Lillian M. Henry, In Bristol Fashion, AuthorHouse, page 202:


dolly bird

(British) An attractive young woman, especially one whose intellect is rather less in evidence than her good looks.


grandmammy

[…] and his orchestra as enchanting to dance to as it is, even if all this wasn't so superb, you'd want to go just to hear and see that grandmammy of all blues-singers who can still out-blue all of the younger ones, none other than Sophie Tucker.

1938, Stadium concerts review, volume 21:

[…] that these administration signals took us students by surprise would be the grandmammy of all understatements. Folks were, depending on their inclinations, in turn suspicious, flattered, surprised, confused, or all of the above simultaneously […]

2003, Stokely Carmichael, Michael Thelwell, Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 222:

(informal) Synonym of granddaddy (“something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind”)


levonorgestrel

(pharmacology) A synthetic progestogen used as an active ingredient in some hormonal contraceptives.


pregnancy school

en-noun

pregnancy school (plural pregnancy schools)

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A school exclusively for pregnant girls.


phallocratic

en-adj

phallocratic (comparative more phallocratic, superlative most phallocratic)

more phallocratic (comparative)
most phallocratic (superlative)

Pertaining to government or dominance by males.


adwoman

A woman working in advertising; a female adman.


herstorical

herstorical (comparative more herstorical, superlative most herstorical)

more herstorical (comparative)
most herstorical (superlative)

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The essays discuss the ways in which the struggles against racism and sexism have come together or the times they have worked in isolation. They are well researched and reflect herstorical conditions of America's past, so often left out of history.

1982 December 4, Malkah Barrsey Feldman, “A Legacy of Oppression”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 20, page 9:

(rare, feminism) Pertaining to herstory.


herstorically

en-adv

herstorically (comparative more herstorically, superlative most herstorically)

more herstorically (comparative)
most herstorically (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-herstorically.wav

(rare, feminism) In a herstoric or herstorical way.


one-child policy

en-noun

one-child policy (plural one-child policies)

At the same time, it glides over the personal traumas that the one-child policy must cause among innumerable Chinese. Certainly it is awesome to think of a nation that brings its powers of persuasion against a woman's right to conceive.

1984 February 14, John Corry, “Birth Curb in China”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(historical) A policy of population control in China, whereby a married couple is allowed only one child.

поли́тика одного́ ребёнка на одну́ семью́


ambulancewoman

The female equivalent of an ambulanceman.


man-midwife

1775, Laurence Sterne, The Koran, Chapter XXXVII: The Man-Midwife, The Works of Laurence Sterne, page 75,
She was daughter to a man-midwife; — and all that has been urged upon the former caſe, is equally referable to this one also.

1835 May 30, Evidence of Mr, Guthrie before the Parliamentary Medical Committee, The Lancet for 1834-35, Volume 2, page 287,
It is the same with the man-midwife ; he has no time to devote to surgery ; if he has time, he has no means of improving his knowledge in it.

Thus, the answer to the old question of whether man-midwives or midwives were the better birth attendants is not simple. Some midwives were indeed dirty, ignorant, and dangerous; some man-midwives saved lives with their forceps; and some births were doomed to disaster.

2010, Mary Lindemann, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe, page 268:


quaintrelle

Borrowed from Late Middle English queyntrelle (“person of fashion”), from Middle French cointerelle, from Middle French cointerel (“vain”) + -elle, -ele (suffix forming feminine diminutive nouns), possibly influenced by quaint. Cointerel is derived from cointe (“clever, intelligent; quaint”), from Latin cognitus (“known, recognized; acknowledged, noted”), the perfect passive participle of cōgnōscō (“to be acquainted (with), recognize; to learn; to know”), from con- (prefix meaning ‘with’) + (g)nōscō (“to know, recognize”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”) + *-sḱéti (suffix forming durative or iterative imperfective verbs from roots)).

der

It folweth nouht that thouh j be thus kembt and a litel make the queyntrelle that for swich cause j am fair

[c. 1430, Guillaume de Deguileville, chapter XLVII, in [anonymous], transl., edited by William Aldis Wright, The Pilgrimage of the Lyf of the Manhode. From the French (Cambridge University Library, MS Kk.1.7) (in Middle English), London: Printed for the Roxburghe Club; J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […], published 1869, →OCLC, 3rd part, folio 109, page 160:

It followeth not that though I be thus kempt [neat and tidy], and a little make the quaintrelle, that for such cause I am fair

On this evening, however, Warthrop became as punctilious as the fussiest quaintrelle. I, as his impromptu valet, bore the brunt of his anxiety. His waistcoat was wrinkled. His shoes were scuffed. His cravat was crooked.

2010, William James Henry [pseudonym; Rick Yancey], “‘Ich Habe Dich Auch Vermisst’”, in The Curse of the Wendigo (The Monstrumologist; 2), New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, →ISBN, page 208:

From Rosie the Riveter to Coco Channel^([sic – meaning Coco Chanel]) (in pants!), from Amelia Earhart to the quaintrelle (the female dandy), change in women's dress has symbolized everything from the right and need to work outside the home to wearing pants as a fashion statement to excelling at a profession (even as an aviatrix) to once again claiming the right to cultivate life's pleasures.

2011, Glenda L. Swetman, Alison Trappey, “Principles of Gender-specific Medicine”, in Lawrence Charles Parish, Sarah Brenner, Marcia Ramos-e-Silva, Jennifer L. Parish, editors, Manual of Gender Dermatology, Sudbury, Mass., Mississauga, Ont.: Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, part I (Primer of Gender Dermatology), page 9:

Her sparkling, hazel eyes emitted a pearly glow … the windows to to an untarnished, unblemished soul. Her spirit was that of a quaintrelle. He was struck by her nuances, which did not seem so subtle after all.

2015, Hrishikesh Joshi, chapter 14, in Checkmate, Mumbai, Maharashtra: Frog Books, →ISBN:

She was the type of woman who deserved to live in a villa or a fancy hotel. The kind of woman you named a star after. A quaintrelle.

2016 February, Christine Reilly, “The Claudio who Promised”, in Sunday’s on the Phone to Monday: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 70:

His smile becomes the flowering flame, a bunch / Of exquisitely beautiful daisies / Among which dandies and quaintrelles flourish / With parrot and chameleon power in full bloom.

2018 August 31, Felix Bongjoh, Season of Flowers, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

[Jean] Painlevé presented Hyas and Stenorhynchus crabs as both masters of disguise—engaging in forms of camouflage or blending into their environment—and undersea dandies and quaintrelles.

2019, James Leo Cahill, “Metamorphoses: Crustaceans, the Coming of Sound, and Plasmatic Anthropomorphism”, in Zoological Surrealism: The Nonhuman Cinema of Jean Painlevé, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN:

(archaic, rare) A woman who is focused on style and leisurely pastimes.


bimbette

On the one hand it offers the standard men's magazine fantasy bimbette: always ready, always horny, willing to do anything, and who inexplicably finds the Hustler male simply irresistible.

Flanked by two beaming bimbettes wearing smiles as big as their boobs and very little else, […]

2006 September 19, Michael Dibdin, Back to Bologna, →ISBN, →OL, page 31:

Mr. Castle, this whole "bad boy charm" thing you've got going might work for bimbettes and celebutantes.

2009 March 9, “Flowers for Your Grave”, in Castle, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Kate Beckett (Stana Katic):

(slang, derogatory) A bimbo; a foolish, ditzy woman.


antepartum

1908, from Latin ante- (“before”) + partum (“giving birth”).

Describing the period before childbirth; antenatal


polymenorrhea

(medicine) Menstrual cycles with intervals of 21 days or fewer.

polimenorrea

menstrual cycles with intervals of 21 days or fewer


partial-birth abortion

en-noun

partial-birth abortion (plural partial-birth abortions)

Intact dilation and extraction
intact dilation and extraction

(US, law, colloquial) Intact dilation and extraction.


protectress

But consider, whether in the sacred promise to be not only a protectress, but a mother to this poor child, your purpose may meet the wishes of the noble knight your husband.

1820, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 25:

She left a daughter, who was adopted by Lady Evelyn, to share a like fate with her mother; for when I saw Lucy Aylmer, her protectress was dead, and she had returned to her father's house, with a pale cheek and languid step, which showed how little her heart was there.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 123:

Her protectress, at this, was upon her again [...]. For the rest of the conversation she was enclosed in Mrs. Wix's arms [...].

In Titian’s hands, Diana, protectress of pubescent girls, became a sporty archer in tie-up sandals and bracelets, hair gathered in a loose bun, a silky tunic gaping to reveal one breast, shooting an arrow at her hunky voyeur, who has newly furry ears and a shiny nose, dogs nipping at his crotch.

2007 March 11, Michael Kimmelman, “The Goal Standard”, in New York Times:


ecofeminism

ecofeminism (countable and uncountable, plural ecofeminisms)

A sociopolitical movement combining feminism and environmentalism.

ekofeminismo

a sociopolitical movement combining feminism and environmentalism


ecofeminist

en-adj

ecofeminist (comparative more ecofeminist, superlative most ecofeminist)

more ecofeminist (comparative)
most ecofeminist (superlative)


premenstrually

Before menstruation or its initial onset.


postmenstrually

In a postmenstrual way; after menstruation or its initial onset.


cybergirl

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Cybergirls intersect with riot grrls as a mode of do-it-yourself girl expression […]

2002, Catherine Driscoll, Girls: Feminine Adolescence in Popular Culture and Cultural Theory:

I leaned over her shoulder to see two cybergirls yanking out each other's hair. Katy was typing insults that appeared onscreen.

For a cinematic critique that considers the social impact of the cybergirl cultural phenomenon, see Andrew Niccols' cautionary tale […]

2006, Sidney Eve Matrix, Cyberpop: digital lifestyles and commodity culture:

Thomas's analysis of adolescent cybergirls' representation of self within the online world of "the palace," links talk, image, and identity […]

2007, Nadine Dolby, Fazal Rizvi, Youth moves: identities and education in global perspective:

Explanations for the gender imbalance are nearly as wide-ranging as cybergirls themselves.

2008 February 21, Stephanie Rosenbloom, “Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain”, in New York Times:

(dated) A girl who is active in cyberspace; a young female Internet user, especially one who publishes.


preggo

A clipping of pregnant + -o (“diminutive suffix”). First use appears c. 1951 in the novel Come In Spinner. See citations page.

Michael Stivic: Come on, Gloria. No one, no one, is going to deny you your constitutional rights.

1975 October 27, Larry Rhine & Mel Tolkin, "Mike Faces Life", episode 6-7 of All in the Family, 00:20:32-00:20:44

So we had a nice rainbow coalition of preggos and their mates — even one lesbian couple.

2007, Philip Lerman, Dadditude: How a Real Man Became a Real Dad, page 56:

2009, Joel Grus, Your Religion Is False, Brightwalton LLC, US, page 105,
Accordingly, they tend to send their gay children off to “conversion therapy” (involving techniques ranging from clitoridectomy to shame) and their pregnant children off to single-sex maternity homes (which are full of all sorts of oddly-titillating preggo-on-preggo action, according to the videos on a website I accidentally stumbled across several times).

2009, Rebeca Seitz, Scrapping Plans, B&H Publishing, US, page 306,
“You bet!” Clay trots back into the diner, reappearing a moment later with a chair. “Here ya go, preggo.”

For more usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

(slang, sometimes offensive) A pregnant female.


lactivism

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The advocacy of breastfeeding, and especially of the right to nurse children in public.


lactivist

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A supporter of breastfeeding, and especially of the right to nurse children in public; one who engages in lactivism.


maternity ward

A hospital ward that provides assistance during childbirth.


matron of honor

en-noun

matron of honor (plural matrons of honor)

The primary woman who assists the bride at a wedding, if this woman is married; a married woman serving in the role of maid of honor.


maiden of honor

maiden of honor (plural maidens of honor)

A girl or unmarried woman who assists the bride at a wedding.


stepgranddaughter

Stiefenkelin

daughter of one's stepchild or stepdaughter of one's child


postmenstrual

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-postmenstrual.wav


misgo

en-verb

misgo (third-person singular simple present misgoes, present participle misgoing, simple past miswent, past participle misgone)

misgoes (present singular third-person)
misgoing (participle present)
miswent (past)
misgone (participle past)

From Middle English misgon, equivalent to mis- + go.

Brother Samson, in the time of the Antipopes, had been sent to Rome on business; and, returning successful, was too late,—the business had all misgone in the interim!

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 6, Monk Samson”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

Let those pity her who can feel their own weakness and misgoing.

1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], chapter 45, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC:

(intransitive, now rare or dialect) To go wrong, make a mistake, go astray, become lost, miscarry.


trolley dolly

I am sure these people were once normal. That is until they walked into BA's superior 'trolley dolly' school. From day one, I am positive it was drummed into them that all economy passengers are scum.

But that was the 1960s and the lot of the trolley dolly has changed: political correctness put an end to age restrictions and the responsibilities go beyond asking passengers whether they want "chicken or fish".

2006, Simon A Bennett, A Sociology of Commercial Flight Crew:

It was sickening and the gross unfairness of it left Cate seriously questioning why she'd ever wanted to be a defence lawyer in the first place. Why hadn't she followed her early adolescent ambitions of becoming a high-flying trolley-dolly - a tart with a cart?

2006, Scott Creighton, Something Went Bump:

(slang, derogatory) A female flight attendant.


nullipara

en-noun

nullipara (plural nulliparas or nulliparae)

The active phase of labour lasts on average 8 hours for the nullipara and 6 hours for the multipara.

2005, Martha Finn, Women's Health: A Core Curriculum, page 147:

spontaneous miscarriage
spontaneous miscarriage

A woman who has never carried a pregnancy beyond 20 weeks (one who has never given birth). It includes women who have experienced spontaneous miscarriages and induced abortions before the mid-point of pregnancy, but not women who have experienced pregnancy loss after 20 weeks.


co-wife

Coordinate term: co-husband

If a co-wife had sought the lives of those three of thine.

1892, Kipling & Balestier, Naulahka, page 247:

In fact, [Ayesha] was more jealous of Khadija, the dead wife, than she was of any of her living co-wives.

1990, Syed A. A. Razwy, Khadija-tul-Kubra (the Wife of the Prophet Muhammed) May Allah be Pleased with Her: A Short Story of Her Life), page 165:

If the senior wife decides to make life unbearable for her co-wife and their husband, she is likely to succeed in forcing the newcomer to leave.

2000, Marjorie Shostak, Nisa, the life and words of a ǃKung woman, page 152:

In other words, polygamous societies differ markedly with regards to allowing kin, especially sisters, to become co-wives. Sororal polygamy is practised in some societies because it is believed to foster greater cohesiveness among co-wives sharing values and norms, whereas it is specifically forbidden in other polygamous societies.

2008, Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Polygamy: a cross-cultural analysis, page 32:

In a polygamous marriage, another wife of a woman’s husband.

shemër

in a polygamous marriage, another wife of a woman's husband


co-mother-in-law

From co- + mother-in-law or co-mother + -in-law.

After dinner, the discerning eye of the co-mother-in-law divines the work of darkness. Your wife also is an expectant mother !

1901, Honoré de Balzac, (trans.) Francis MacNamara, The Physiology of Marriage, page 334:

She had a right of entrée to the Castle now as prospective co-mother-in-law with the duchess, and made the most of it.

1912, Sarah Grand, Adnam's Orchard, pages 508–509:

[…] responded with temper and irritability toward her step-daughter, Anna, who was so demure and so complete a member of the new society, and toward Ngaoli, her co-mother-in-law, gaunt, old, married under the old system, a devoted church member, righteous mother of five children, who fortunately had no complications in her life.

1956, Margaret Mead, New lives for old: cultural transformation—Manus, 1928-1953, page 381:

(uncommon) The mother of one's children-in-law; that is, the mother-in-law of one's children, or, the mother of one spouse in relation to the parents of the other spouse; either of two or more women whose children marry each other, such as the mother of a bride vis-à-vis the mother of the groom.


co-sister-in-law

From co- + sister-in-law or co-sister + -in-law.

co-sister

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

[The Russian word] Yátrov', for the husband's brother's wife or co-sister-in-law, so diagnostic a status within the patrilocal household, has passed entirely out of the language.

1979, Paul Friedrich, editor, Language, Context, and the Imagination, page 193:

At first the wench's second co-sister-in-law and the middle sister-in-law got into it.

2006, Kalipatnam Rama Rao, translated by C.L.L. Jayaprada, Yagnam and Other Stories, page 61:

One's spouse's sister-in-law, especially one's husband's brother's wife, one's brother's wife in relation to the spouses of his siblings; either of two (or more) women who are married to brothers, in relation to the other.


co-sister

From co- + sister. The second meaning was influenced by a Dravidian substrate.

During this time I came to know about tubectomy from my co-sister and also from the female health worker. This time both my husband and father-in-law refused [me the surgery] on the ground that I was the eldest daughter-in-law and a responsible person for the whole family.

1989, Abusaleh Shariff, Fertility transition in rural South India, page 263:


supergirl

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From super- + girl. The DC Comics heroine Supergirl first appeared in May 1959.

"A soda," Toria suggested. "Could I also have quarters for the video game?" Anya countered. "Okay, okay, but only if it's all right with your dad." Anya jumped up and down, tugging on Toria with supergirl strength. Nick put his hands on his hips.

1996, Vivian Leiber, Marrying Nicky, Harlequin, →ISBN:

[…] garrulous skull paperweight wresting the spotlight away from Ruby-Spears' flying cars, supergirls and sasquatches.

1998, Hal Erickson, Sid and Marty Krofft:

And it ignores the privilege that helps only certain girls become supergirls and makes them suffer when they come close to achieving this status […]

2002, Sharon Lamb, The Secret Lives of Girls:

An average Chinese girl, with talent in singing, dancing, or acting, can be elected a supergirl by TV media outlets.

2006, George Zhibin Gu, William Ratliff, China and the new world order:

You may be a supergirl on the go, but that doesn't mean you can't figure out ways to maximize your morning minutes with some simple nutrition.

2007, Esther Blum, Karen Salmansohn, Eat, Drink, and Be Gorgeous:

[…] emphasis on perfection, resulting in mounting pressure on girls to be supergirls.

2008, Pier Cesare Rivoltella, Digital Literacy:

(informal) A girl who is particularly successful, talented, or otherwise remarkable.


weathergirl

(now sometimes offensive) A young female weather forecaster.


bargirl

/ˈbɑː(ɹ)ɡɜː(ɹ)l/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bargirl.wav

San Francisco's local, for example, initially admitted bargirls, but following the public condemnation of bargirls in the late 1930s, the local appointed a committee to investigate the situation.

1991, Dorothy Cobble, Dishing It Out, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 126:

A female who works as a hostess in a bar, typically in Southeast Asia and catering to male clients, and who may provide personal entertainment or sexual services.


matriotism

Blend of alma mater + patriotism, later reanalyzed as being derived from matri- by analogy with patriotism. Though attested since the mid-19th century, the continued placement of the word within quotation marks suggests it is often regarded as a neologism.

Patriotism has incited men to live and die for the country and government; but Matriotism has impelled women to live and work for mankind. […] The Matriotism of household economics needs to be recognized as necessary for the whole of society.

1894, The New England Kitchen Magazine: A Monthly Journal of Domestic Science, volume 1, Boston, Mass.: New England Kitchen Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 84:

The love or celebration of a woman's influence upon society; the female equivalent to male patriotism.

An enduring devotion to Mother Earth, ecology, sustainability, peace, and the survival of the human species.


co-grandmother

Talk to enough grandparents and one thing becomes clear: Because she's closer to the mother of the children, the maternal grandmother generally has a slight advantage. Or, as Audrey Berson […] put it: "She's my daughter, so I have the edge." Even so, Berson's co-grandmother works in the same town as the grandkids, and she sometimes meets the bus after school. "It bothers me," Berson said. "I wish it were me."

2009 May 19, Beth Teitell, “Horns Come Out When Grandparents Envy Each Other”, in Boston Globe, archived from the original on 2009-06-03, page B7:

A Canadian grandmother's essay about essentially crashing her daughter-in-law's birth […] Rhona Bennett writes of […] hopping a train to Montreal, and (in cahoots with her co-grandmother) bum-rushing the hospital […] The two bubbies called the hospital […] and naturally were rebuffed, so off they went, in search of information, affirmation, and a grandbaby.

2008 December 2, Kate Tuttle, “A Grandmother's Right? Or Totally Obnoxious?”, in Strollerderby:

the mother of one's son- or daughter-in-law, as common grandmother of their children; the relationship between women who have grandchildren in common; maternal grandmother vis-à-vis paternal grandmother.

co-mother-in-law

relative to the children rather than the grandchildren


co-mother

* com- + mother, as calque of Latin commater, French commère.

Coordinate term: co-father

The dilemmas engendered by the absence of a biological tie between a child and co-mother illuminate the centrality of familial rights and obligations in American kinship.

2004, Robert Parkin, Linda Stone, Kinship and family: an anthropological reader, page 384:

In a lesbian couple, the nonbirth mother (partner of the birth mother) of a child, especially one who takes an equal role in mothering the child.


co-aunt

of a woman, an aunt of one's niece or nephew who is not one's sister; a co-sister-in-law as common aunt to the children of two women's married siblings.


sororal niece

The daughter of one's sister. (This entry is a translation hub.)


fraternal niece

fraternal niece (plural fraternal nieces)

The daughter of one's brother. (This entry is a translation hub.)


gunwoman

From gun + -woman, by analogy with gunman.


prepregnancy

After adjusting for prepregnancy weight, smoking status and other variables, the average birth weight of babies in the decaf group was a statistically insignificant one-half ounce higher than that of babies in the coffee-drinking group.

2007 February 13, Nicholas Bakalar, “Childbirth: Cutting Caffeine Not Found to Affect Birth Weight”, in New York Times:


menstrual period

menstrual period (plural menstrual periods)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-menstrual period.wav

An event of a woman's discharging of menstrual flow of blood and cells.


the rabbit died

Robin finally was able to announce: "Good news! The rabbit died!" She said she was thrilled and that everybody was happy for her except her mother.

1993, Maurice Apprey, Intersubjectivity, Projective Identification, and Otherness, page 153:

(idiomatic, euphemistic) Indicates one's own pregnancy, or that someone has found out they are pregnant.


meemaw

Probably an affectionate alteration of mama or reduplication of maw (“mother”).

“Let's celebrate with drinks at Tipsy River.” “Uh, I don't want to go to Tipsy River. I don't want to bother my meemaw while she's working.” “Let's not push it. He's embarrassed of his country-ass grandma.” “Don't be embarrassed of your meemaw, Wayne. She's fun.”

2021 April 18, Christy Stratton & Erin Wagoner, “Hoot 'N Haw” (3:29 from the start), in Bless the Harts, season 2, episode 18, spoken by Wayne Edwards (Ike Barinholtz):

“Captain, we are in orbit of Brekka.” “Dr. Migleemo, you have the conn.” “Ba-ha-ha. A feast of opportunities to make you proud, Captain.” “Keep it together, Doctor. You'll do fine.” “[sniffles] It's really happening.” “Orders, sir?” “Yes. Initiate a subspace communication link to my meema. I want her to see her special boy being the captain!” “Yes, sir.”

2022 October 20, Ben M. Waller, “Trusted Sources” (17:12 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 3, episode 9, spoken by Dr. Gabers Migleemo (Paul F. Tompkins):

(US, dialect, Southern US) Synonym of mamaw (“grandmother”)


repairwoman

From repair + -woman on the model of repairman.

A female repairer, a woman who repairs things.


cat lady

Beacon Hill’s notorious cat lady was in the spotlight again yesterday after an angry confrontation with cops who say they found at least two dead felines in her freezer following a brief standoff at her Plymouth home.

2009 March 19, Jessica Fargen, “Cops: Lady froze her cats again”, in Boston Herald:

The most common is a female character. Single of course, lamenting that she can never own a cat because once you have one you won't be far away from being the cat lady of the neighborhood.

2009 November, Suzanne Mullett, ABC News:

We all know the stereotype of the crazy cat lady who lives alone in a home that smells of stale litter. But how unjust is it really?

2023 October 3, Sirin Kale, “Purring, parasites and pure love: what exactly makes someone a cat person?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Aniston was responding to recently resurfaced 2021 comments by Vance, who told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

2024 July 25, Catherine Shoard, quoting JD Vance, “Jennifer Aniston criticises JD Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ comment”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(informal, sometimes derogatory) A woman, often elderly, who devotes her time and attention to one or usually many domestic cats.

femme à chats

elderly lady who devotes her attention to cats


step-niece

The daughter of someone's stepbrother or stepsister.


saintess

From Middle English seintesse. By surface analysis, saint + -ess.


riot grrrl

riot grrrl (countable and uncountable, plural riot grrrls or riot grrrlz)

riot grrrls (plural)
riot grrrlz (plural)

The Riot Grrl scene emerged in the early '90s, but had faded as a driving force in popular culture by the end of the decade. Looking back, most associate the Riot Grrl movement mainly with music, and although the music entered the popular culture, it's fair to say that much of the feminist message has been lost.

2004, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, The F-word, Seal Press, →ISBN, page 86:

(uncountable) An underground feminist punk movement and subculture that began in the early 1990s.

Riot grrrls also wanted self-definition through the written word and promoted a female-centered version of punk's DIY politics.

2001, Miriam Forman-Brunell, Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 564:

(countable) A (usually female) member of this subculture.


feminineness

feminineness (usually uncountable, plural femininenesses)

The state or condition of being feminine.


jillflirt

[W]hile a man is grappling with these gil-flirts, pardon the expression, Captain, he runs his reason a-ground […].

(obsolete) A flirtatious woman; a hussy.


cum dumpster

The artist collected one hundred used white dress shirts and employed the formal conventions of male fashion to describe the double standards of society’s responses to sex for male versus female teenagers. […] On the back of each shirt, a centerline separated the categories “Male” and “Female.” The male side is articulated by only two adjectives: “stud” and “man.” On the female side is a spill of slanderous words and phrases used to characterize sexually active young women: “whore,” “cunt,” “slut,” “cum-dumpster.”

[1995, Patricia C. Phillips, “Peggy Diggs: Private Acts and Public Art”, in Nina Felshin, editor, But Is It Art? The Spirit of Art as Activism, Seattle: Bay Press, →ISBN, page 308:

“We fucked the shit out of this cum dumpster the other night,” he explains. Oh, I say. The photos show a woman, probably in her early twenties, wearing nothing except for white socks sagging around her ankles.

2001, Ken Baker, Man Made: A Memoir of My Body, New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, →ISBN:

She was unclean, she had let herself be used in the filthiest way, she was a ratty hotel washrag, a cum dumpster.

2004, Tom Wolfe, I Am Charlotte Simmons, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 493:

I would be spending my evening with a nice cum dumpster named Bubbles. Dressed from head to toe in tight black leather, she only had to show me the ball gag in her hand.

2004 April 2, Lord Bumblebee, “Getting Tickled by Bubbles”, in The GW Hatchet, Washington, retrieved 2022-01-30:

I would explain it's because you aid and abet my skeezy ex, the Blowpipe! Devil Girl! The Cum Dumpster! Motorhole!

2007, Alexander Theroux, Laura Warholic, or, The Sexual Intellectual, Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, →ISBN, page 143:

(vulgar, derogatory, offensive, slang) A sexually promiscuous person, usually a woman or bottom, who has sexual relations with men who often ejaculate in their body cavities.


assassinatrix

From Latin assassinatrix. By surface analysis, assassinate + -trix.

surf

The young Socialists had glorified Vera Sassoulitsch, the Russian would-be assassinatrix.

1881, Leonard A. Montefiore, Essays and Letters Contributed to Various Periodicals between September 1877 and August 1879, together with Some Unpublished Fragments, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page xlvi:

[T]he Bride tracks down [David] Carradine's Bill—leader, mentor and more to this unstoppable assassinatrix.

2004 April 14, Richard von Busack, “‘Bill’ Paying: When Everything is Cool, Nothing is Hip—Quentin Tarantino Kills Again [review of Kill Bill: Volume 2]”, in Metroactive, Metro Silicon Valley, archived from the original on 2015-09-21:

Having appeared with Jason [Statham] in Lock, Stock [and Two Smoking Barrels], Snatch and Mean Machine didn't necessarily qualify Jason Flemyng to play the hapless Russian villain Dimitri, while Kate Nauta's role as an evil assassinatrix dressed only in bra, pants, suspenders and high heels teetered from the initially sexy to the rudely ridiculous.

2011, Len Brown, Jason Statham: Taking Stock, London: Orion Publishing, →OCLC:

Charlotte Corday
French Revolution
Jean-Paul Marat
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry
Reign of Terror


butt-woman

My thoughts always revert to the angry butt-woman when the second chapter of St. James' Epistle is read in its ordinary course.

1862, Margaret Goodman, Experiences of an English Sister of Mercy, London: Smith and Elder, page 26:

"It was more like a funeral than a wedding," said the butt-woman, who was the sole spectator of the ceremony, with the exception of the bride's uncle and aunt, told her friends afterwards.

1892 September, Annie Thomas, “The Honourable Jane.”, in Belgravia: a London magazine, volume 79, page 10:

The butt-woman was just setting forth the need of money for church repairs but she interrupted herself when she found me studying monuments.

1909 March, Edna Bourne Holman, “At Herrick's home in Devon”, in Scribner's Magazine, volume XLV, number 3, page 259:

(obsolete, chiefly British) A female lay church worker who tends the pews in a church; a sextoness.


fetus in fetu

(medicine, obstetrics) A fetus growing inside the body of another fetus, either from an unsuccessful twin pregnancy, or as a tumorlike growth.


ex-stepmother

A previous wife of one's father during one's lifetime, other than one's mother, typically following the divorce or death of the mother.


ex-stepmom

(informal) An ex-stepmother, implying affection.


materfamilias

en-noun

materfamilias (plural materfamiliases or matresfamilias)

materfamiliases (plural)
matresfamilias (plural)

From Latin māter familiās, mother of the household.

The materfamilias and her daughters do a good deal of the housework, and even open the front door on occasion.

1903, Luigi Villari, Italian Life in Town and Country, pages 110–111:

That my old-country materfamilias is actually Chinese--Mandarin Chinese, yet--is a negligible discrepancy.

1990 June 1, Mary Shen Barnidge, “Who Killed the Dragon Lady”, in Chicago Reader:


old boys' club

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A boys' club (an organization that excludes women), especially one with an established history of male control.


tenniswoman

tenniswoman (plural tenniswomen or tenniswomans)

tenniswomen (plural)
tenniswomans (plural)

From French tenniswoman. Equivalent to tennis + -woman.

I will speak whit a tenniswoman please can you me whrit .

1999 November 7, etienne.wala, “VIDEOS OF GREAT TENNIS MATCHES”, in alt.video.tape-trading (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-17:

I'm french (rouen) and i think that french tenniswomans will be the best. mary pierce is 5, nathalie tauziat is 7, julie halard-decugis is 9 and amelie mauresmo is 10. i think it's very great!
what do you think about french tenniswomans?
what do you think about french tennis in generality?
tnanks, seb

1999 November 21, Sank76, “FRENCH TENNISWOMAN”, in alt.tennis (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-17:

Give the tenniswomen their "own" grandslams: the first 2 days for the women with a 16 players draw and playing two matches a day which is easy because they play best of three "matches" only.

2005 June 5, Carty Staniu, “Tenniswomen demand less prizemoney”, in rec.sport.tennis (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-17:

In this case, fake nude photos of Steffi Graf, the retired tenniswoman, showing her head morphed to another woman's nude body, were posted on a Web site run by the ISP Microsoft Germany. She asked the company to remove the pictures that appeared on its site. The ISP complied with her request but the tenniswomen asked also the company to sign an undertaking that they would not appear again.

2008 December 8, Vari L. Cinicke, “... Agassi sues Graf”, in rec.sport.tennis (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-17:

(non-native speakers' English) A female tennis player.


birthmother

The Agency educated us on the adoption process and gave us the opportunity to meet with other adoptive parents and also prospective birthmothers.

1989 June 16, Adoptive mother and father, “Top-Notch Agency”, in Chicago Reader:

The biological mother of an adopted child.


contracept

en-verb

contracept (third-person singular simple present contracepts, present participle contracepting, simple past and past participle contracepted)

contracepts (present singular third-person)
contracepting (participle present)
contracepted (participle past)
contracepted (past)

Back-formation from contraception. Attested US 1932, with earlier occasional use as abbreviation for contraceptive in the medical literature; popularized US mid-1960s in the context of the sexual revolution.

(transitive) To administer contraception, especially to a population of wild animals


immunocontraception

(medicine) The use of an immune response to facilitate contraception


genitrix

en-noun

genitrix (plural genitrixes or genitrices)


dollface

dollface (usually uncountable, plural dollfaces)

(slang, often endearing) An attractive woman.


foundress

From Middle English founderess, founderesse, foundress (“female founder or builder of a city; female founder or benefactor of a religious house; (figuratively) female inventor or originator; (figuratively) a source”) [and other forms]; from founder, foundere, foundour (“founder or builder of a building, city, country, etc.; builder or endower of a church, college, monastery, etc.; benefactor or patron of such an institution; charter member of a guild; first head of a religious organization; inventor, originator; (figuratively) earliest of a class of people; (figuratively) a source”) + -esse (“suffix forming female forms of words”). Foundour is derived from Anglo-Norman fundur, Old French fondeor, fondeur (“creator, instigator, founder”) (modern French fondeur), from Latin fundātor (“founder”) (rare), from fundō (“to make by smelting, found”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”)) + -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns). The English word is analysable as founder + -ess (suffix forming female forms of words).

suffix

But whether he departed without the French kings conſent or diſaſſent, he deceiued in his expectacion, and in maner in diſpaire, retourned againe to the Lady Margaret his firſt fooliſh foundreſſe.

1569, Richard Grafton, “Henry the Seuenth”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume II, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey Toye, →OCLC, page 898:

Forgetfull of himſelfe, his bearth, his Country, friends, and all, / And onely minding (vvhom he miſt) the Foundreſſe of his thrall.

1602, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XX.”, in Albions England. A Continued Historie of the Same Kingdome, from the Originals of the First Inhabitants thereof: […], 5th edition, London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant for George Potter, […], →OCLC, page 94:

He humbly louted in meeke lovvlineſſe, / And ſeemely vvelcome for her did prepare: / For of their order ſhe vvas Patroneſſe, / Albe Chariſſa vvere their chiefeſt foundereſſe.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 44, page 147:

This VVoman conceiving there vvas not already Sects enough amongſt Chriſtians, had it in her Head to make another. And moreover, Perſons of her Sex having not been accuſtomed to be Foundreſſes of Religions, ſhe thought that hers vvould make her conſiderable in the VVorld by the ſingularity of its Original.

1689, [Pierre] Jurieu, “An Article of Controversie. Reflections on a Writing Newly Sent to the Churches of France. A Continuation of the Matter Concerning the Unity of the Church.”, in [anonymous], transl., The Pastoral Letters of the Incomparable Jurieu, Directed to the Protestants in France Groaning under the Babylonish Tyranny, Translated: […], London: […] T. Fabian, […]; and J. Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, page 144:

For zeal like her's her ſervants vvere too ſlovv; / She vvas the firſt, vvhere need requir'd, to go; / Herſelf the foundreſs and attendant too.

c. 1691 (date written), John Dryden, “Eleonora: A Panegyrical Poem, Dedicated to the Memory of the Late Countess of Abingdon”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 233:

[I]f he had been acquainted vvith the names of the many foundreſſes and benefactreſſes in our tvvo univerſities, he vvould not have advanced ſo great an untruth.

1766, “PEMBROKE, (Mary Sidney, countess of)”, in Biographium Fæmineum. The Female Worthies: Or, Memoirs of the Most Illustrious Ladies, of All Ages and Nations, […], volume II, London: […] S. Crowder, […], →OCLC, page 191:

[I]n death repose, / For her, the founderess of the shrine, / That holocaust to wrath divine, / Not only error to atone, / But grateful homage for a throne!— […]

1859, H[arriet] M[ary] Carey, Matilda of Normandy. A Poetical Tribute to the Imperial Academy of Caen, London: Saunders & Otley, […], →OCLC, page 70:

She [Anne Geneviève de Bourbon] was one of the early founderesses of those literary gatherings which attained such renown in the Hôtel de Rambouillet, and lavished her bounties freely among a crew of poetasters, whom she naïvely thought sublime.

1873 June, “The French Press. I. First Period. The French Press, from Its Foundation to the Death of Mazarin.”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume XXVII, number 162, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, section IV, page 726:

Miss Sellon, the foundress of English sisterhoods, adopted and brought up in her convent at Devonport a little Irish waif who had been made an orphan by the outbreak of cholera in 1849.

1897, [George William Erskine Russell], “Children”, in Collections & Recollections […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1898, →OCLC, page 431:

Saint Brigid is one of the great figures in the epoch immediately succeeding the first coming of the Word. She was the foundress of a school of religious teaching for women at Kildare, or Killdara, "The Church of the Oak-woods," whose name still records her work.

1902, Charles Johnston, “The Saints and Scholars. a.d. 493–750.”, in Ireland Historic and Picturesque, Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry T. Coates & Co., →OCLC, page 210:

The method of healing of Jesus Christ and that of the foundress of Christian Science [Mary Baker Eddy] are not one and the same method, although called by the name of faith they appear at first sight to the unwary to be identical.

1904, John H[enry] Stapleton, “Christian Science”, in Moral Briefs. A Concise, Reasoned and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals, New York, N.Y., Cincinnati, Oh.: Benziger Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 125:

Where is our highly honourworthy salutable spouse-founderess?

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part II, page 244:

Their doctrines are eclectic and simple and, unlike the ministers of established schools, the founders (or more frequently the founderesses) make claim to unusual spiritual power in divination, sorcery, and faith healing.

1991, Minoru Kiyota, “Japan’s New Religions (1945–65): Secularization or Spiritualization?”, in Leslie S. Kawamura, editor, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism (SR Supplements; 10), Waterloo, Ont.: [F]or the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, →ISBN, page 203:

Francis [of Assisi]'s own unlovely tunic, and that of his female colleague Clare, foundress of parallel communities for women, are lovingly preserved and displayed by the nuns of St Clare in Assisi, so amid the stateliness and beauty of Clare's thirteenth-century basilica, there is a perpetual reminder of what it means to live like the destitute.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, “A Church for All People? (1100–1300)”, in A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Allen Lane, Penguin Books, →ISBN, part IV (The Unpredictable Rise of Rome (300–1300), page 404:

(dated) A female founder (“one who founds or establishes”).

perustajatar

[T]he comparison of multiple inseminations and multiple foundress associations showed that the number of foundresses, a component of migration structure, affects the potential for social evolution more strongly than the number of inseminations per foundress, a component of the mating structure.

1987, Michael J. Wade, Felix J. Breden, “Kin Selection in Complex Groups: Mating Structure, Migration Structure, and the Evolution of Social Behaviors”, in B. Diane Chepko-Sade, Zuleyma Tang Halpin, editors, Mammalian Dispersal Patterns: The Effect of Social Structure on Population Genetics, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, part V (Mathematical Models of Population Structure), page 281:

When two [European paper wasp] foundresses meet at the nest site after hibernation, the foundress with the higher corpus allatum activity usually becomes dominant.

1991, Peter-Frank Röseler, “Reproductive Competition during Colony Establishment”, in Kenneth G. Ross, Robert W. Matthews, editors, The Social Biology of Wasps, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Comstock Publishing Associates, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, figure 9.4 caption, page 329:

Like many vertebrate cooperative breeders, foundress associations of paper wasps are composed of individuals of varying relatedness (typically full sisters, cousins, and unrelated individuals;[…]), […] However there is also very clear helping behaviour: subordinate foundresses hunt for caterpillars and other insect food to provision the offspring of the dominant female.

2021, Michael Taborsky, Michael A. Cant, Jan Komdeur, “Conflict”, in The Evolution of Social Behaviour, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 131, column 1:

(zoology, specifically) A female animal which establishes a colony.


foundress

From founder (“one who founds or casts metals”) + -ess (suffix forming female forms of words). Founder is derived from Middle French fondeur (“owner of a foundry; ironworker in charge of smelting, founder”) (modern French fondeur), from Latin fundātor (“founder”) (rare): see further at etymology 1.

der

The great bell of my heart is crack'd, and never / Can ring in tune againe, till't be nevv caſt / By one only skilfull Foundreſſe.

c. 1635–1636 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Fancies, Chast and Noble: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seile, […], published 1638, →OCLC, Act III, page 35:

(metallurgy, obsolete, rare) A female founder (“one who founds or casts metals”).


glam lesbian

"No Day Like Sunday" is becoming a chic weekly institution among the snooty and glam lesbian set.

Nevertheless, there have been some notable exceptions, from the lesbian mom in Ellen to the glam lesbian couple in If These Walls Could Talk.

2003, Suzanna Danuta Walters, All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 221:

A lesbian with a very feminine appearance.


Orangewoman

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Orangewoman.wav


wife-in-law

A wife in law only, such as one who has abandoned her husband

co-wife

synonymous with the polygamous sense of the term

A wife who provides domestic or social support, but not love or affection

Instead she arranges, offhand, a nice little farewell dinner for her husband that was and the lady, Flora, who is to be her successor three months hence. […] Flora is generously constrained to leave the sometime-husband and wife to talk the matter over. "Are we not wives-in-law?" says Madame. And the upshot is that although Flora interrupts them by phone from her flat below several times until the receiver is left off, Madame easily wins back her husband. Indeed, so complete is their absorption that they have forgotten completely the trifling circumstance that they are no longer man and wife.

1922, Felix Emmanuel Schelling, Appraisements and asperities as to some contemporary writers, pages 116–117:

the collection of people who would gather in either of the two houses for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and sometimes again in summer. This collection involved former mothers-in-law, former husbands, ex-wives of former husbands, and doddering uncles from distant marriages, as well as, of course, the various and sundry children and dogs (dogs-in-law as one family member calls them) of the now recombined families. In the process, I believe, we were responsible for the creation of a new American family relative—the wife-in-law, or the husband-in-law.

2002, John Hanson Mitchell, The Wildest Place on Earth: Italian Gardens and the Invention of Wilderness, page 38:

"Your plan provides Browne with two charming wives and gives me but one. […]"
"But, my lord," said Saunders, "doesn't the plan give Lady Deppingham two husbands? It's quite a fair division."
"It would make Lord Deppingham my husband-in-law, I imagine," said Drusilla quaintly. "I've always had a horror of husbands-in-law."
"And you would be my wife-in-law," supplemented Lady Agnes. "How interesting!"

1908, George Barr McCutcheon, Harrison Fisher, The Man from Brodney's, page 148:

Many husbands, like the wives-in-law themselves, were deeply divided and upset over a family life that could no longer be defined as a single unit.

1994, Philip Leroy Kilbride, Plural marriage for our times: a reinvented option?, page 22:

Another wife of one's husband. Typically used in cases of divorce and subsequent remarriage for one's husband's ex-wife, but sometimes used in polygamy for a co-wife.


vulvovaginitis

en-noun

vulvovaginitis (countable and uncountable, plural vulvovaginitises or vulvovaginitides)

vulvovaginitises (plural)
vulvovaginitides (plural)

(medicine) Inflammation of the vulva and vagina.


vulvitis

vulvitis (usually uncountable, plural vulvitides)

(medicine) An often painful inflammation of the vulva.


feminoid

We may speak, therefore, of a feminoid intersexuality at puberty...

1932, Gregorio Marañón, Warre Bradley Wells, The evolution of sex and intersexual conditions:

On the other hand, there are men with more bisexual, more feminoid natures, who seek the missing complement of their own masculinity in women.

1962, Marie Bonaparte, Female sexuality:


feminoid

From feminist + -oid (suggesting a robotic, heartless quality as in android).

These establishments serve as headquarters for covens of feminoids primarily to pursue their own agendas and only secondarily to help these alleged victims.

2000, Laura K Egendorf, Male/female roles: opposing viewpoints:

That may have changed just a little bit, time will tell, since the professional feminoids have discovered the evils and dangers of pornography.

2006, George P Garrett, Empty bed blues:


blondine

A bleach that colors a woman's hair blonde.

A woman who has bleached her hair blonde.


counterfeminist

en-adj

counterfeminist (comparative more counterfeminist, superlative most counterfeminist)

more counterfeminist (comparative)
most counterfeminist (superlative)


maternity bra

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-maternity bra.wav


neofeminist

A proponent of any of various new or postmodern forms of feminism.


groundswoman

(rare) The female equivalent of a groundsman.


protofeminism

en-noun

protofeminism (usually uncountable, plural protofeminisms)

A philosophical tradition anticipating modern feminist concepts before their arrival.

protoféminisme

concept that anticipated the feminist movement


nonpregnancy

nonpregnancy (usually uncountable, plural nonpregnancies)

The state of not being pregnant (carrying offspring).


nift

From Middle English nyfte, nift, nifte, from Old English nift (“niece, granddaughter”), from Proto-Germanic *niftiz (“niece”), from Proto-Indo-European *néptih₂. The male is neve. Doublet of niece.


glamourpuss

Perhaps that is what is lacking in the work of the younger glamourpusses around today. Zubin Mehta, for example, strikes me as being in something of a mess.

1968 May, New York Magazine, volume 1, number 5:

Even Joan Collins, that perennial glamourpuss, goes to Barbara for the Daly magic for special occasions.

1991, Sally Moore, The Definitive Diana: An Intimate Look at the Princess of Wales from A to Z:

The person who asked that question was holding some image of the actor as just a glamourpuss affair; she had no idea of what acting is about.

1995, Nicholas Ray, Susan Ray, I Was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies:


nonvertex

(anatomy, chiefly obstetrics) Not of or pertaining to the vertex.


women's studies

The academic field which examines topics concerning women, feminism, and the relationship of gender and politics.


multiple birth

A birth in which more than one baby is born.


officeress

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-officeress.wav

What are the functions of this lady—what it was she desired to try—whether her name begins with N., T., Or P., seem to be moot questions; but they positively say, not only that such an officeress exists, but that she keeps a Clerk.

1839 June, Morgan O'Doherty, “Familiar Epistle to the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia.”, in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume 19, James Fraser, page 742:

It required a sketch from the life by Burton of the inky hag who was chief officeress of his brigade to put matters right at home.

1931, Fairfax Davis Downey, Burton, Arabian Nights Adventurer, C. Scribner's sons, page 214:

I can hear the tumbrel wheels creaking again and the swift slide of the blade—in my dream I was being interviewed by a female Mont Court parole officeress or whatever, dreams take their own course, and pretty soon the doctor or the male Mont Court, or somebody, came back.

1998, Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song, Vintage International, →ISBN, page 361:

(archaic or humorous, rare) A female officer.


half niece

half aunt

antonym(s) of “with regards to ancestry”

Daughter of one's half brother or half sister.


period pants

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-period pants.wav

(British, informal, plural only) Underwear worn by a woman or girl during menstruation, typically old, cheap, or of a dark colour in case of staining.


portress

From Middle English porteresse; equivalent to porter + -ess.

(rare, dated) A female porter (person in control of the entrance to a building)


pseudocyesis

en-noun

pseudocyesis (usually uncountable, plural pseudocyeses)

From pseudo- + cyesis, from Latin pseudo- + Ancient Greek κύησις (kúēsis).

A false pregnancy; the appearance of signs and symptoms associated with pregnancy when the person or animal is not pregnant.


cock sock

To Barry Sandler, author of the screenplay, an Obscene Oscar—for peddling the year’s outstanding example of R-rated pornography; with special mention for the scene in which Lombard gives Gable a handknitted cock sock […]

1976 May, “Movies”, in Playboy, volume 23, number 5, page 22:

Costume designer Patrick Antosh explains that the birth of the cock sock came from his work on the film American Psycho. “There was a scene with Christian Bale running around entirely naked covered in blood. He didn’t want to do full frontal nudity, so I developed a spandex pouch that fits over the entire genitalia. […]

2003, Paul Ruditis, Queer as Folk: The Book, New York: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 106:

I was scrolling one afternoon when I saw a post from a guy in Melbourne selling crochet cock socks for $150 each.

2020 July 13, Felippe Canale, “Meet the Guy in Melbourne Knitting Socks for Cocks”, in Vice:

(slang, vulgar) A garment designed to cover the penis, either as a novelty item or for the purpose of modesty.


girlchild

The male is esteemed "the head of the family;" it belongs to him; he maintains it; and the rest of the world is a wide hunting ground and battlefield wherein he competes with other males as of old. ¶ The girl-child, peering out, sees this forbidden field as belonging wholly to men-kind; and her relation to it is to secure one for herself—not only that she may love, but that she may live.

1911, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, chapter 2, in The Man-Made World; or, Our Androcentric Culture:

She had a baby slung on her back in a shawl, a girl child clinging to her skirts, and a heavy-faced boy plodding behind her.

1941, Emily Carr, chapter 5, in Klee Wyck:

"Patróklos,
why all the weeping? Like a small girlchild
who runs beside her mother and cried and cries
to be taken up, and catches at her gown,
and will not let her go, looking up in tears
until she has her wish: that's how you seem,
Patróklos, winking out your glimmering tears.

1974, Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, The Iliad, Doubleday, Book Sixteen, p. 377:

In the final, affirming piece, "They Tell Me...Now I Know," the girlchild narrator begins menstruation, thus undergoing her rite of passage into womanhood.

1989 December 17, Terri L. Jewell, “The Power Of Black Women Together”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 23, page 13:


steel magnolia

* Combining the contrasting images of steel, a hard metal, and magnolia, a flower.

Reporters called Nancy Reagan an iron butterfly and Rosalind^([sic]) Carter a steel magnolia.

1983, Roland Bartel, Metaphors and symbols: Forays into Language, National Council of Teachers of English, →ISBN, page 48:

Ms. Deen is an irresistible example of that extraordinary phenomenon of Southern womanhood, the steel magnolia. She is always appealing and gracious but possessed of an unfailing survival instinct — a necessary character trait for a Southern cook to make it.

1998, John Berendt (introduction), The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook, Random House, Inc., →ISBN, page xv:

"That's how Candy refers to herself to make the vamps think she's just a little Southern belle."
"When she's really a steel magnolia?"

2009, Nancy Haddock, Last Vampire Standing, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 111:

(chiefly Southern US) A woman, unashamed, who exemplifies both traditional femininity and an uncommon fortitude.


cervicitis

cervicitis (usually uncountable, plural cervicitides or cervicites)

cervicitides (plural)
cervicites (plural)


masturbatrix

masturbatrix (plural masturbatrices or masturbatrixes)

masturbatrices (plural)
masturbatrixes (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-masturbatrix.wav

I thought at first she was a regular intriguer, but came to the conclusion that I had had the first of her; and that until then she had been a masturbatrix, and frigged her flesh off her bones.

Mony quickly divested himself of his clothes, then, cock aloft, fully rigid, he flung himself upon the two masturbatrices, attempting to separate them. But his hands slipped on their damp and gleaming bodies which were coiled about like snakes.

1995, Guillaume Apollinaire, Flesh Unlimited: Two Erotic Novellas, page 17:

The actress wanted to stretch in a role that was 180 degrees away from the omnivorous Tramell and the masturbatrix from Sutton.

1997, Frank Sanello, Naked instinct: the unauthorized biography of Sharon Stone:


barefoot and pregnant

"The only way to keep a woman happy," he said, "is to keep her barefoot and pregnant."

Ms. Frank finds it a strange, if not a perverse coincidence that, after all these centuries of Jewish history, just when Jewish women are demanding greater and more meaningful participation in Jewish religious and communal life, certain segments of the Jewish community are loudly hitting the old "barefoot and pregnant motif."

1994, Steven Bayme, Gladys Rosen, The Jewish family and Jewish continuity:

I was to stay the ol' barefoot and pregnant wife. And I saw no need for that. I found myself in a rut. Get up, fix breakfast, send hubby off to work...

2007, Edward M Tauber, Jim Smoke, Finding the Right One After Divorce:

"He wanted me barefoot and pregnant," she said. But staying home was driving her crazy.

2007, Greg J Duncan, Aletha C Huston, Thomas S Weisner, Higher ground: New Hope for the working poor and their children:

(derogatory, of women) Kept at home to perform the traditional duties expected of women.


foremilk

foremilk (countable and uncountable, plural foremilks)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-foremilk.wav

The first milk drawn from a cow during milking; in humans, the milk secreted initially during breastfeeding, typically low in fat and rich in protein.


hindmilk

hindmilk (usually uncountable, plural hindmilks)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hindmilk.wav

The milk secreted during the later part of breastfeeding, typically high in fat and low in protein.


foresister

From fore- + sister. Compare forefather.

Only then will we be able to adequately tell what our foresisters have done in memory of her.

1984, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In memory of her: a feminist theological reconstruction of Christian origins:

Of course, women and men are always children of their time, and feminists today are children of their time, sitting on the shoulders of their foresisters even if they do not recognize it.

1999, Deborah F Sawyer, Diane M Collier, Is there a future for feminist theology?:

(feminism) A feminist of an earlier generation.


interesting condition

interesting condition (plural interesting conditions)

I cannot honestly report that I have ever seen a feline matron of this class washing her face when in an interesting condition.

1880, Charles Dickens, Great expectations, page 549:

His young wife ... was at church with her mother, and suddenly overcome by indisposition, arising from her interesting condition, she could not remain standing, she drove home in the first sledge, a smart-looking one, she came across.

1917, Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnet, Anna Karenina, Part 2, Chapter 5:

... and replied that he was come there about a lady, now an inmate of Horne's house, that was in an interesting condition, poor body, from woman's woe (and here he fetched a deep sigh) and to know if her happiness had yet taken place.

They borrowed a female [cat] in an interesting condition and set their trap under the cypress tree at the top of the vacant lot.

1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, page 168:

That knee-trembler put Angela in an interesting condition and, of course, there was talk.

1996, Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes: a memoir, page 15:


spontaneous abortion

spontaneous abortion (countable and uncountable, plural spontaneous abortions)


womenkind

From Middle English wommenkynde. By surface analysis, women + -kind.

All women around the world viewed as one entity.


women's liberation

Fourier was the most ardent and voluminous advocate of women's liberation and of sexual freedom among the early socialists.

1966, New Left Review, November–December, p 12

The freedom of women from sexism; equal rights for women.


cohostess

Julia Meade assisted Ed as cohostess and chief product seller during and for a while after his Toast of the Town years.

1971, Ronald W Lackmann, Remember television:


magical girl

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-magical girl.wav

Calque of Japanese 魔法少女 (まほうしょうじょ, mahō shōjo).

calque

まほうしょうじょ, mahō shōjo

The magical girl starts out as a typical schoolgirl. Her transformation—via a glamorous costume, and amplified by special powers—gives her a new identity.

2013, Christopher Hart, Magical Characters, Watson-Guptill Publications, →ISBN, page 17:

Contrary to conventional magical girl anime, in which protagonists happily accept their superpower, shōjo heroines are reluctant to become Magical Girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

2014, Lien Fan Shen, “The Dark, Twisted Magical Girls: Shōjo Heroines in Puella Magi Madoka Magica”, in Norma Jones, Maja Bajac-Carter, Bob Batchelor, editors, Heroines of Film and Television: Portrayals in Popular Culture, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 183:

The magical girl genre was originally aimed at girls: series like Sailor Moon were first serialized in shōjo manga (girls' comics) magazines and contained many traits common to that genre.

2015, Deborah Shamoon, “The Superflat Space of Japanese Anime”, in Lilian Chee, Edna Lim, editors, Asian Cinema and the Use of Space: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Routledge, →ISBN, page 98:

In Japanese anime and manga, a young girl with superhuman abilities who is called upon to fight evil.

девочка-волшебница f (devochka-volshebnitsa, literally “a girl wizard”)

девушка-волшебница f (devushka-volshebnitsa, literally “a young woman wizard”)


vacuum aspiration

en-noun

vacuum aspiration (countable and uncountable, plural vacuum aspirations)

(medicine) A method of inducing abortion, during the first trimester of pregnancy, in which the embryo and placenta are drawn off through a narrow tube.


pseudofeminist

en-adj

pseudofeminist (comparative more pseudofeminist, superlative most pseudofeminist)

more pseudofeminist (comparative)
most pseudofeminist (superlative)

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The ads deployed pseudofeminist rhetoric with implicit references to Title IX and sexual assault, casting trans students as patriarchal threats to women’s hard-won rights: “The end of girls’ sports? Her dreams of a scholarship shattered, your 14-year-old daughter just lost her position on an all-girl team to a male … and now she may have to shower with him. Are you willing to let that happen?”

2019, Mia Fischer, chapter 5, in Terrorizing Gender: Transgender Visibility and the Surveillance Practices of the U.S. Security State, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, →LCCN, page 176:

Seemingly feminist; feminist perhaps in form, but certainly not in essence.


pseudofeminism

en-noun

pseudofeminism (usually uncountable, plural pseudofeminisms)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pseudofeminism.wav

The period of these blockbuster franchises has also seen such popular pseudofeminisms as 'girl power' that claim empowerment while buying in to materialisms that are patriarchal.

2007, John Lennard, Octavia E Butler: Xenogenesis / Lilith's Brood, page 14:

A belief system that resembles, but is not in fact, feminism.


vaginal ring

Inequality, research shows, [is why] we still see Aids-related deaths in an era when we have all the antiretrovirals, HIV prevention pills, vaginal rings, injections and harm-reduction plans needed to end the pandemic.

2023 August 7, Mia Malan, “A pandemic is not just a disease – it’s a political, social and economic crisis fuelled by inequality”, in The Guardian:

(medicine) A device consisting of a flexible ring held in the vagina which provides a controlled release of drugs, typically used for contraception.


vernix

Derived from Medieval Latin vernix (“varnish”).

The cheesy stuff is called vernix, and it's a natural moisturizer that protects the baby's skin while she's in the womb.

2004, Armin A Brott, The New Father, Mitchell Beazley, published 2011, page 21:

But when – like Troy in the end of the film – you are presented for the first time with an angry, purple, bloody, vernix-covered, shit-smeared, breathing human being, everything changes.

2009 November 7, Sam Leith, The Guardian:

(obstetrics, medicine) Vernix caseosa; a fatty deposit covering the skin of newborn babies.


senatrix

From Latin senātrīx, the feminine form of senātor.

The Federal elections, for which women were entitled to stand as senatorial candidates, had come previously, though old prejudice had been too strong to the extent of many votes to grasp that a woman might really be a senatrix, and that a vote cast for her would not be wasted, still one woman candidate had polled 51,597 votes […]

2014, Miles Franklin, Some Everyday Folk and Dawn:

(rare) A female senator (a female member of a senate)


sperminator

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My stomach jumped off a cliff and my legs became stone. The Pill . . . was she on it? I never asked. First shot lucky. The Sperminator.

1998, Douglas Coupland, Girlfriend in a Coma, page 44:

And the epic pain I was about to endure any day now was going to make the sperminator's backache seem like a hangnail.

2013, Vicki Murphy, MotherFumbler, page 28:

I rubbed elbows with Bravo Housewives Teresa Giudice, Kyle Richards, Brandi Glanville, and Gretchen Rossi, and sperminator Jon Gosselin.

2014, Courtney Robertson, I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends: Confessions of a Reality Show Villain, page 215:

(slang, humorous) A man who impregnates a woman or women.

Men are not getting enough sex: men with their greater levels of testosterone, and their role as sperminators.

1997, Ian Grey, Sex, Stupidity and Greed: Inside the American Movie Industry, page 83:

What chance did a woman stand? The man was the Sperminator — melting all logic and self-restraint in his sensuous wake.

[…] There's so much gorgeous manmeat at Princeton. What about Tim? Now that's the kind of sperminator I went after in college. Big hunky wrestler guy."

2016, Kate Siegel, Mother, Can You Not?, page 136:

(slang, humorous) A desirable or sexually promiscuous man.


cot-quean

What, shall a husband be afraid of his wife's face? Will she paint it so horribly? We are a king, cotquean, and we will reign in our pleasures, and we will cudgel thee to death if thou find fault with us.

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster, act 4, scene 4:

(obsolete, derogatory) A female cuckold; a cuckquean.


womanism

womanism (countable and uncountable, plural womanisms)

From woman + -ism. Coined by Alice Walker in 1983.

Although womanism raises the issue of gender, it simultaneously offers a distance from the “enemy,” in this case, Whites generally and White women in particular.

2001, Sheila Ruth, editor, Issues in Feminism: An Introduction to Women's Studies, McGraw-Hill:

In line with femalism, African womanism is committed to the quest for total freedom of the colonized African men and women.

2004, Chioma Carol Opara, Her Mother's Daughter: The African Writer as Woman, page 20:

Feminism is the form of women's organisation that is prioritised both in the media and academia, but many black women have turned to womanism in an attempt to counter the ways in which the combined oppressions of race and gender affect our lives. Womanism is not just feminism for women from minorities; it is based in our spirituality, honouring our foremothers and a desire to support both men and women.

2010 April 10, Renee Martin, “I'm not a feminist (and there is no but)”, in The Guardian:

An extension to feminism that incorporates respect for women of all races and classes.


femspeak

The aim of this jargon-sodden Femspeak is to set up a myth of women artists as a hated underclass, which they were not in 1975 and are not today; in such a scheme, vagina hatred is imputed to men as automatically as penis envy once was to women.

1980 December 15, Robert Hughes, “An Obsessive Feminist Pantheon”, in Time:

The Bergers assert that “the family is a problem”, and note that the concept of 'gender roles' is merely “femspeak” – a technique for arguing that the assignment of roles within the family is arbitrary and that it can/should be changed, so as to advance women's welfare (p 64).

2005, Ann Oakley, The Ann Oakley Reader: Gender, Women and Social Science, The Policy Press, →ISBN, page 44:

According to Warren Farrell, an Orwellian “lace curtain” of governing “femspeak” is virtually indistinguishable from the propaganda machinery of tyranny states.

2007, Robert Menzies, “Virtual Backlash: Representations of Men's 'Rights' and Feminist 'Wrongs' in Cyberspace”, in Susan B. Boyd, Dorothy E. Chunn, Hester Lessard, editors, Reaction and Resistance: Feminism, Law, and Social Change, UBC Press, →ISBN, page 83:

(derogatory) The characteristic jargon of feminists and feminist discourse.


blood sister

A female bound to another one in commitment and friendship by a ceremonial mingling of blood (aka the blood oath).

sœur de sang

a female bound to another one in commitment and friendship by a ceremonial mingling of blood


sorosis

According to Webster Suppl. 1879, an arbitrary use of the botanical term, adopted as the name of the first club of the kind, founded in 1868. It follows that it shares the same etymology, referring to aggregation, rather than the etymology of sorority, which referred to sisterhood.

Yet these women were not a clique, nor a sect, nor a Sorosis, but all our wives, and sisters, and daughters, and lovers. They were just the common lot […]

1869, Putnam's Magazine, volume 3, page 640:

They gathered up all the privacies of the city and poured them into his ear, and his family became a sorosis, or female debating society of seven hundred, discussing, day after day, all the difficulties between husbands and wives[…]

1890, John Van Valkenburg, Jewels of Pythian Knighthood:

(US historical) A women's club; a society to further the educational and social activities of women.


only daughter

A sole female child, whether one among multiple siblings, or one who has no siblings.


executioneress

Twelve umbrellas, covering as many Bo-fetiche priestesses, followed by two brass shields, a large drum, two large scimitar-shaped blades, fretted as usual, and having skulls on the hilts, eighteen Bo Kpo in red avo, six executioneresses in leopard cloths of yellow with black spots, silver horns and bracelets; a number of black affairs like Highlanders’ targets, and five flags.

1874, J. A[lfred] Skertchly, “The So-Sin Custom—(continued)”, in Dahomey as It Is: Being a Narrative of Eight Months’ Residence in That Country, […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], page 267:


multigravida

multigravida (plural multigravidas or multigravidae)

multigravidas (plural)
multigravidae (plural)

If all is well, a multigravida can often push the head out in seconds, but you donʼt want it that way.

2002, Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife, Phoenix (2012), page 13:

A pregnant woman who has had at least two previous pregnancies.


anti-choice

en-adj

anti-choice (comparative more anti-choice, superlative most anti-choice)

more anti-choice (comparative)
most anti-choice (superlative)

[...her campaign techniques] demonstrate a pattern to deceive potential contributors by failing to disclose without ambiguity that she is soliciting funds for her presidential candidacy and not for the antichoice movement.

1976, NARAL complaint against Ellen McCormack, “Complaint may block federal matching funds”, in the Beaver County Times, 1976 February 18

Gamble also warned the audience that the possibility of judicial change is "not remote". She said that two anti-choice Reagan appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court would put anti-choice justices in the majority by one vote.

1984 February 4, Sue Hyde, “Abortion Activists Mark Jan 22. Anniversary”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 1:

(derogatory, dysphemistic) Not pro-choice; opposed to the individual's choice, especially of abortion or euthanasia.


prodeath

prodeath (comparative more prodeath, superlative most prodeath)

more prodeath (comparative)
most prodeath (superlative)

A contrary view was expressed by Helen Cindrich, president of People Concerned for the Unborn Child.
"He (Huyett) has not crumpled under the pressure of the well-funded prodeath profiteers," she said in a press release.

1982 December 8, “Abortion Clinics Prepare For New Law”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: