Xanthippe

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-Xanthippe.wav

Borrowed from Latin Xanthippē or its etymon Ancient Greek Ξανθίππη (Xanthíppē), the name of Socrates’ wife, from ξανθός (xanthós, “blond; golden, yellow”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱas- (“blond; grey; white”)) + ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eḱ- (“horse; swift (?)”)). She is described as shrewish in Xenophon’s Symposium, though the same work states that Socrates chose her precisely because of her argumentative spirit. In Xenophon’s Memorabilia and Phaedo by Plato she is depicted as a devoted wife and mother.

der

Be ſhe as foule as was Florentius Loue, / As old as Sibell, and as curſt and ſhrow'd / As Socrates Zentippe, or a worſe: / She moues me not, or not remoues at leaſt / Affections edge in me.

[c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 213, column 1:

RICHARD HOOKER, that rare and admirable Theologiſt, [...] married a clowniſh ſilly Woman and withal a meer Xantippe, [...]

1691, [Anthony Wood], “RICHARD HOOKER”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volume I (Extending to the 16th Year of King Charles I. Dom. 1640), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […], →OCLC, column 262:

[page 235] He was prudent and induſtrious, and ſo good a Huſbandman, that he might have led a very eaſy and comfortable Life, had not an errant Vixen of a Wife ſoured his domeſtic Quiet. [...] [page 236] By this Xantippe (ſo was the Wife of Socrates called, ſaid Partridge) By this Xantippe he had two Sons, of which I was the younger.

1749, Henry Fielding, “In which the Man of the Hill Begins to Relate His History”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VIII, pages 235–236:

Who has not seen the cross looks and peevish temper of the teacher and parent copied, as by a mirror (though we should say without reflection), in the face and disposition of the child? [...] From an unbroken course of such treatment, who would expect any thing but an unbroken line of Nabals and Xanthippes?

1850 September, W. C. Goldthwait, “Power of Expression”, in W. W. Mitchell, editor, The Massachusetts Teacher, volume III, number 9, Boston, Mass.: Samuel Coolidge, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 286:

What have we seen in our own personal walks through life to make us believe that women are devils? There may possibly have been a Xantippe here and there, but Imogenes are to be found under every bush.

1858, Anthony Trollope, “Louis Scatcherd”, in Doctor Thorne. […], volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 185–186:

The use he [Socrates] made of his domestic trial may be profitably remembered by any that have a Xanthippe to deal with.

1870 July, “Socrates. Part I.”, in Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume LXXVI, number CCCCLI, Dublin: George Herbert, […]; London: Hurst & Blackett, →OCLC, page 114, column 1:

The 'kneeling punishment' (罰跪) would seem to be a well recognized mode of enforcing their authority, in use by Chinese Xanthippes, for the proverb says: 'The Henpecked man is obliged to kneel with a lamp on his head [to make it certain that he does not stir] until the morning watch.'

1884 January–February, Arthur H[enderson] Smith, “The Proverbs and Common Sayings of the Chinese. … Puns and Other Linguistic Diversion.—Parodies.”, in The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, volume XV, number 1, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, →OCLC, footnote *, page 14:

(literary, derogatory, dated) An ill-tempered woman.

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg
Phaedo
Plato
Reyer van Blommendael
Socrates
Xanthippe
Xenophon


Caesarean section

en-noun

Caesarean section (countable and uncountable, plural Caesarean sections)

Likely corruption of the Latin phrase a caesō mātris uterō (“[born] from a cut in the mother’s womb”), supposedly the origin of Caesar's name. More at Caesar, at caedō, and at Caesarean section § Etymology.

Delivery of a baby through an incision in the womb.

帝王切開

ていおうせっかい teiōsekkai


C-section

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

2011. San Francisco Chronicle
"C-section not necessarily end to vaginal delivery"

Caesarean section
Caesarean section#English


Caesarean

Shortening of Caesarean section; see also Caesarean section § Etymology.


girl group

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

Coordinate term: boy group

A pop group made up of (usually attractive) young women.


fiancée

A woman who is engaged to be married; the woman to whom one is engaged.


quicken

en-verb

quicken (third-person singular simple present quickens, present participle quickening, simple past and past participle quickened)

quickens (present singular third-person)
quickening (participle present)
quickened (participle past)
quickened (past)

From Middle English quikenen (“to become alive again after dying; to raise (someone) from the dead; to regain consciousness or strength; to give vitality, revive; to regain validity; to nourish; to spare (the life of someone or something); to ignite; to illuminate; of events: to happen more quickly; of clouds: to form”) [and other forms], from quiken (“to come to life; to become alive again after dying; to give or regain vitality, revive; of a seed: to germinate, grow; to arouse (anger); to inspire; to reinforce, strengthen; to make (a substance) alchemically active; to nourish, sustain; to sharpen; to ignite; to illuminate; of news: to spread”) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive forms of verbs). Quiken is derived from Old English cwician (“to bring to life, vivify; to come to life, become living; to quicken”), from cwic (“alive, live, living; mentally agile; intelligent, keen”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive; lively; quick”) and Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”)) + -ian (suffix forming verbs from adjectives and nouns). The English word may be analysed as quick (“moving with swiftness; occurring in a short time; (archaic) alive, living; (archaic) pregnant”) + -en (suffix attached to some adjectives forming transitive verbs meaning ‘to make [adjective]’).
Cognates
* Danish kvikne (“to quicken, revive”)
* Icelandic kvikna (“to ignite; to turn on”)
* Swedish kvickna (“to revive”)

nb...

quecken, queken, quekenen, quicken, quickene, quickenen, quickin, quicknen, quicnen, quiken, quikene, quikken, quikkenen, quikkin, quikne, quiknen, quikyn, quycken, quyken, quykene, quykken, quykne, quykyn, qweken, qwekyn, qwicken, qwiken, qwikken, qwikkin, qwikyn, qwycken, qwyken, qwykken, qwykkyn, qwykyn, qwyykne, (Northern England) qwhikken, qwhykkyn, whiken, whikken

suffix

suffix attached to some adjectives forming transitive verbs meaning ‘to make 􂀿adjective􂁀’

cog

[…] she
Quickened the fire and laid the board, […]

1870, William Morris, “December: The Fostering of Aslaug”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 75:

Was it alight once? Still lives spark enough
For breath to quicken, run the smouldering ash
Red right through.

1887, Robert Browning, “With Charles Avison”, in Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day: […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 210:

Senses relating to life or states of activity.

(archaic) To make or help (something) to burn.


auntie

Tok Pisin: anti

Torres Strait Creole: anti

→ Burmese: အန်တီ (anti)

⇒ Chinese: 安娣 (āndī)

→ Pennsylvania German: Aendi

→ Scottish Gaelic: antaidh

→ Yoruba: àǹtí


placenta

en-noun

placenta (plural placentae or placentas)

Elision for phrases such as New Latin placenta uterī (“womb cake”), placenta uterina (“uterine cake”), from Latin placenta (“flat cake”), because of the flat round shape of the afterbirth.

(anatomy) An organ in most mammals during gestation that supplies food and oxygen to the foetus and passes back waste. It is on the wall of the uterus and links to the foetus through the umbilical cord. It is expelled after birth.

(botany) In flowering plants, the part of the ovary where ovules develop; in non-flowering plants where the spores develop.


madam

From Middle English madame, from Old French madame, from ma (“my”) + dame (“lady”), from post-classical Latin mea domina. Doublet of Madonna.

Mrs Grey wondered if the outfit she was trying on made her look fat. The sales assistant just said, “It suits you, madam”.

Later, Mrs Grey was sitting in her favourite tea shop. “Would madam like the usual cream cakes and patisserie with her tea?” the waitress asked.

“Nothing, madam, but a tumbler of wine with a little water—thank you, madam. Mesdames, great events have occurred since I left you.”

1857, Charles Reade, White Lies. A Story., volume I, London: Trübner & Co., […], page 276:

I leaned on the hoe, in classic pose, and watched the cowbird try to bust his buttons in that agonizing split whistle which is his serenade to the madam. Perhaps I should say to the mesdames, for this fellow is the Don Juan of the feathered world, with no moral standards and a distinct aversion to anything that resembles domestic ties.

1951 April, John H. Day, “The Breath of April”, in Pennsylvania Game News, volume XXII, number 1, Pennsylvania Game Commission, page 27, column 1:

“[…] This size, madam!” Certainly, the mesdames would not have been interested.

After two years, Madam X was busy enough to take on a partner: Madam Z, aged twenty. Both regularly scouted new marks and told Stead that ‘nurse girls’ (nannies) were the best: ‘there are any number in [the parks] every morning and all are virgins’. Selling maidenhoods was their speciality. ‘Our gentlemen want maids,’ they said, ‘not damaged articles.’ ‘Come,’ he said to the mesdames, ‘what do you say to delivering me five [girls] on Saturday next? . . . Could you deliver me a parcel of maids, for me to distribute among my friends?’ Within a fortnight, the Mesdames had supplied Stead with seven girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.

2012, Bridget O’Donnell, Inspector Minahan Makes a Stand: The Missing Girls of England, Picador, →ISBN:

A polite form of address for a woman or lady.

ခင်ဗျာ

used by males to address both males and females

ရှင်

used by females to address both males and females

After she grew too old to work as a prostitute, she became a madam.

I sneaked into the house and stole my sister’s Hudson-seal fur coat out of the closet, then I beat it down to a whorehouse and sold it to the madam for $150.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Quit Foolin’ with That Comb”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 54:

(slang) A woman who runs a brothel, particularly one that specializes in finding prostitutes for rich and important clients.


mummy

Diminutive of mum, related to mom and mommy, from mother.

“Oh, mummy, would you like the loveliest daughter-in-law in the world? Oh, mummy, I must marry Flora Dewsley. But I know I am not nearly good enough, mummy. She knows nothing of the world and its wickedness, and I — Well, mummy, at school, a fellow learns everything. And no man is perfect, is he, mummy?[…]”

1926, John Steinbeck, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 198, page 9:

Meeting mummy after this visit was not exactly easy.

1927, Harper's Magazine, volume 155, page 188:

“[…]What′s your problem, you little shit? Proud of yourself, for ruining Mummy′s life?” I was careful to use the insipid falsetto the experts commend. “You′ve got Daddy snowed, but Mummy′s got your number. You're a little shit, aren′t you?″

2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, published 2010, unnumbered page:

2004, Dennis Child, Psychology and the Teacher, Continuum International Publishing, page 91,
‘ […] We have to ask mummy if we can go to Rajah′s mummy′s house (Rajah′s mummy is the owner of the dog). We can if mummy says “yes”. […] ’

Darla stared at her father and said, Mummy, Mummy, Mummy!
Marjorie wheezed and said, Father. You. Are. Filthy!
Joe said Daddy′s muddy! Daddy′s muddy!
Darla stared at the darkened doorway where Howard stood, saying, Mummy, Mummy, Mummy, each time a little louder, each time a bit more shrilly,[…].

2009, Paul Harding, Tinkers, published 2010, unnumbered page:

(chiefly UK, New England, usually childish) mother.


negress

From French négresse, from nègre. Equivalent to Negro + -ess.

Directly they were trotted off in their little pea-green and gilt carriage, guardian negress and all, I went into the shop, about which I had all this time been loafingly prowling, and called, clapping my hands, for some violet sherbet, […]

1860, Walter Thornbury, Turkish Life and Character, volume 1, page 137:

1995, A. J. Verdelle, The Good Negress (book title)

(dated, literary, now offensive and an ethnic slur) A black female.


fetus

fetus (plural fetuses or fetus or (hypercorrect) feti or (misconstructed) fetii)

tlb

(American spelling, also Canada, Australia)

fetuses (plural)
fetus (plural)
feti (hypercorrect plural)
fetii (misconstruction plural)

Learned borrowing from Latin fētus (“offspring”). Doublet of fawn.

lbor

Several feti were removed from every rats' uterus, stripped of their membranes and allowed to lie in the peritoneal cavity connected to the placenta by the umbilical cord and with the placenta still attached to the uterine wall.

1963, John W Choate, Henry A. Thiede, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Transcript, Volume 2

An unborn or unhatched vertebrate showing signs of the mature animal.

fetus

an unborn or unhatched vertebrate showing signs of the mature animal

The sequence is: molecules in reproductive systems, then gametes, zygotes, morulas, blastocysts, and then fetuses.

A human embryo after the eighth week of gestation.

The real essence of that or any other sort of substances, it is evident, we know not; and therefore are so undetermined in our nominal essences, which we make ourselves, that, if several men were to be asked concerning some oddly-shaped fœtus, as soon as born, whether it were a man or no, it is past doubt one should meet with different answers.

1959 [1689], John Locke, chapter 6, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, vol. 2, New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., page 77:


sheath

From Middle English sheth, shethe (“holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath”) [and other forms], from Old English sċēaþ (“sheath”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþiju, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz (“sheath; covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”) (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted).
The English word is cognate with Danish skede, Dutch schede, Icelandic skeið, German Scheide, Low German scheed, Norwegian skjede.

nb...

chethe, scǽð, scaþ, schede, schete, scheth, schethe, seaþ, seeth, seth, sethe, shæþ, shede, sheethe, sheith, (Southwest) ssethe, sseþe, (early forms) scæðe, scaþe, seaþe

der

(zoology) The foreskin of certain animals (for example, dogs and horses).


pad

1554, "bundle of straw to lie on", probably from Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.

unk

probably

The mostly hairless flesh located on the bottom of an animal's foot or paw.

възглавничка на животинска лапа

(colloquial) A small house, apartment, or mobile home occupied by a single person; such as a bachelor, playboy, etc.


maternal

PIE word
 *méh₂tēr
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English maternal, maternall, from Middle French maternel (“maternal”) (modern French maternel (“maternal; native”)), or from its etymon Late Latin māternālis (“maternal”), from Latin māternus (“maternal; related to the mother or her side of the family”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Māternus is derived from māter (“mother”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (“mother”)) + -rnus (suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate with Italian maternale, materno, Portuguese maternal, materno, Spanish maternal, materno.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

der

Divide what? The estate that came from the father to the son. Amongst whom? The paternal brothers. If it means, that paternals and maternals shall now divide, as paternals formerly did, the whole sentence operates nothing; for without, the half blood on both sides, would have taken. But say it establishes a well-known standard to divide by, and that this standard excludes the maternals, then every word, as well as this word "only," has a material effect and energy.

1826 January, John Haywood, Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court, “Jane C. Butler v. James M. King”, in George S. Yerger, William Frierson Cooper, editors, Tennessee Reports. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, new edition, volume II, St. Louis, Mo.: G. I. Jones and Company, published 1876, →OCLC, page 109:

If there are both paternal and maternal uncles and aunts, the maternals take a third, even if there is only one of them, and whether male or female, and the paternals two-thirds, even though there is only one of them, and whether male or female. If the maternals are of one kind, a male has the portion of two females.

1869, Neil B[enjamin] E[dmonstone] Baillie, “Of Inheritance by ‘Nusub’ or Consanguinity”, in A Digest of Moohummudan Law on the Subjects to which It is Usually Applied by British Courts of Justice in India. Compiled and Translated from Authorities in the Original Arabic, part 2nd (Containing the Doctrine of the Imameea Code of Jurisprudence […]), London: Smith Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 286:

A person related through the mother, or her side of the family; a maternal relative.


lass

term-label

(archaic except UK, dialectal, informal or poetic)

From Middle English las, lasce, lasse (“female infant or child; young woman”), probably from Old Norse laskwa (“unmarried”, adjective).
(Cognates):
Scots lass, lassie

col

Cognates

Come and dance, ye lads and lasses!

[T]heyr founders soules / Haue lost theyr beade rolles, / The mony for theyr masses / Spent amonge wanton lasses; […]

1521–1522, John Skelton, “Here after Followeth a Litel Boke Called Colyn Cloute, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 327, lines 423–426:

Ste[phano]. Is it ſo braue a Laſſe? / Cal[iban]. I [i.e., aye] Lord, ſhe vvill become thy bed, I vvarrant, / And bring thee forth braue brood.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12, column 2:

This is the prettieſt Lovv-borne Laſſe, that euer / Ran on the greene-ſord: […]

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 292, column 2:

The laſs i' th' red petticoat ſhall pay for all. Young men anſvver ſo vvhen they are chid for being ſo prodigal and expenſive, meaning they vvill get a vvife vvith a good portion, that ſhall pay for it.

1678, J[ohn] Ray, “An Alphabet of Joculatory, Nugatory and Rustick Proverbs”, in A Collection of English Proverbs […], 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] John Hayes, printer to the University, for W. Morden, →OCLC, pages 80–81:

[P]ray vvhich is the little Laſs that intends to be a Gentlevvoman?

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 8:

Let the toaſt paſs, drink to the laſs, / I vvarrant ſhe'll find an excuſe for the glaſs.

1777 May 8 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The School for Scandal; a Comedy; […], Dublin: [s.n.], published 1780, →OCLC, Act III, scene [ii], page 40:

But one there is, the loveliest of them all, / Some sweet lass of the valley, looking out / For gains, and who that sees her would not buy?

1799–1805 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Book VIII. Retrospect.—Love of Nature Leading to Love of Man.”, in The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind; an Autobiographical Poem, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 208:

[S]he was the bonniest lass in our parochine and the neest till't.

[1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 309–310:

He was fond of a lass and fond of a glass, and fond of a ran-dan; […]

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Black Andie’s Tale of Tod Lapraik”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 172:

My audience to this not-too-easy operation was a small group of Scottish school lasses, who seemed (perhaps naturally) to find the proceedings somewhat mysterious, but at any rate amusing. I wished they would go away, but they didn't, so I had to get on with the job to the accompaniment of a background of giggles!

1952 February, H[enry] C[yril] Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 77:

A girl; also (by extension), a young woman.

Jenny Hill, a pale, overwrought, pretty Salvation lass of 18, comes in through the yard gate, leading Peter Shirley, a half hardened, half worn-out elderly man, weak with hunger.

1905, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Major Barbara”, in John Bull’s Other Island and Major Barbara: Also How He Lied to Her Husband, London: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1907, →OCLC, Act II, page 216:

(specifically) A female member of the Salvation Army; a hallelujah lass.

[…] I'll tell ye that after we are done wi' our supper, for it will may be no be sae weel to speak about it while that lang-lugged limmer o' a lass is gaun flisking in and out o' the room.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 101:

[…] I'll tell you that after we are done with our supper, for it will maybe not be so well to speak about it while that long-eared rogue of a maidservant is going capering in and out of the room.

[S]ure aneugh, the lass washed clottered blood aff the carpet the neist day.

[1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter XI. The Same [Darsie Latimer] to the Same [Alan Fairford].”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 234:

She fleyed Johnnie awa' frae the door when he was for daffin' wi' the serving lasses.

[1927 July, John Buchan, “The Black Wood by Day”, in Witch Wood, London: Hodder and Stoughton, published August 1927, →OCLC, page 90:

(Northern England, Scotland) A female servant; a maid, a maidservant.

As fair art thou, my bonie laſs, / So deep in luve am I; / And I will luve thee ſtill, my Dear, / Till a' the ſeas gang dry.

[1794, Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose”, in Songs, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume IV, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, published 1869, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 210:

"Hi, Juno, lass—hi, old girl; down, Daph, down," said Wardle, caressing the dogs.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “A Pleasant Day, with an Unpleasant Termination”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 188:

(Scotland, familiar) A term of address for a woman, or a female animal.


stunna

The stress over what went down with Gatz caused her to drop twenty pounds but the weight loss was in all the right places. She was a stunna before but now she's a downright bad chick.

2006, Kali James, Can U Get Away?, page 83:

(colloquial, chiefly British tabloid press) Alternative form of stunner (“a woman of stunning beauty”)


godmother

From Middle English godmoder, from Old English godmōdor (“godmother”), equivalent to god- + mother. Cognate with Old High German gotmuoter (“godmother”), Old Norse guðmóðir (“godmother”), Icelandic guðmóður (“godmother”), Swedish gudmoder (“godmother”), Danish gudmor (“godmother”).

A woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner; a female godparent who sponsors the baptism of a child.

madrinha

reflects the relationship to the baptized child

comadre

reflects the relationship to the parents of the baptized child, not to the child


goddaughter

/ˈɡɑdˌdɔ.tɚ/

/ˈɡɒdˌdɔːtə(ɹ)/

From Middle English goddoghter, goddoȝter, from Old English goddohtor (“goddaughter”), equivalent to god- + daughter. Cognate with Danish guddatter (“goddaughter”), Swedish guddotter (“goddaughter”), Icelandic guðdóttir (“goddaughter”).

A female child whose baptism is sponsored by a godparent.


wench

Sranan Tongo: wenke

The noun is derived from Middle English wench, wenche (“female baby; girl (especially unmarried); maiden, young woman; bondwoman; serving maid; beloved, sweetheart; concubine, mistress; harlot, prostitute”) [and other forms], a shortened form of Middle English wenchel (“girl; maiden; child”), from Old English wenċel, winċel (“child; servant; slave”), from Proto-Germanic *wankilą, from Proto-Germanic *wankijaną (“to sway; waver”). The English word is cognate with Old High German wenken (“to waver; to give way, yield”), wankōn (“to totter”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

When I am dead, good Wench, / Let me be vs'd with Honor; ſtrew me ouer / With Maiden Flowers, that all the world may know / I was a chaſte Wife, to my Graue: [...]

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 226, column 2:

The mother held her tight, / Saying hard between her teeth—'Why wench, why wench, / The squire speaks to you now—the squire's too good; / He means to set you up, and comfort us. / Be mannerly at least.'

1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Third Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 126:

term of endearment
term of endearment#English

(archaic or dialectal) Used as a term of endearment for a female person, especially a wife, daughter, or girlfriend: darling, sweetheart.


buxom

en-adj

buxom (comparative buxomer or more buxom, superlative buxomest or most buxom)

buxomer (comparative)
more buxom (comparative)
buxomest (superlative)
most buxom (superlative)

From Middle English buxum, buhsum, bucsum, also ibucsum, ibuhsum (“bendsome, flexible, pliant, obedient”), from Old English bōcsum, *būhsum, *ġebūhsum (“bendsome, pliant, obedient”), from Proto-West Germanic *beuhsam, *beugsam, equivalent to bow (“to bend, bow at the waist”) + -some or buck (“to bend, buckle, kick”) + -some.
Cognate with Scots bowsome (“compliant”), West Frisian bûgsum (“flexible, bendy”), Dutch buigzaam (“flexible, pliant”), German biegsam (“flexible, pliant”).

af

Aarfy's buxom trollop had vanished with her smutty cameo ring, and Nurse Duckett was ashamed of him because he had refused to fly more combat missions and would cause a scandal.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 433:

DIED. Robert Brooks, 69, canny businessman who, as chairman of Hooters, turned the bar-restaurant chain, famed for buxom waitresses in orange hot pants, into an international success.

2003 July 23, “Milestones”, in Time, archived from the original on 2008-06-23:

(of a woman) Having a full, voluptuous figure, especially possessing large breasts.


granny

I'm going to be a granny.

Good morning, Granny!

Travelling with their granny, who seems more interested in her crossword puzzle than them, they bicker and fight in a futile bid to get her attention. Oh, the joys of travelling during the school holidays!

2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55:


big sister

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

(often childish) A sibling's older sister.


little sister

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

Hey little sister, what have you done? / Hey little sister, who’s the only one? / Hey little sister, who’s your superman? / Hey little sister, who’s the one you want? / Hey little sister, shotgun!

1981, “White Wedding - Pt. 1”, in Billy Idol, performed by Billy Idol:


great-great-grandmother

The mother of someone’s great-grandparent.


Juliet

/ˈd͡ʒuːlɪɛt/

Borrowed from Italian Giulietta, diminutive of Giulia, from Latin Iūlia, feminine of Iūlius, a Roman family name. Cognate with French Juliette.

"All I ask," she says, fitting the cigarette into a holder, "is that you don't call me Juli-et. I cannot abide Juli-et. It maddens me!" "Yes, ma'am." "Here, we say Joolyut. Joolyut. Joolyut. Say it for me."

1977, Timothy Findley, The Wars, Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence, →ISBN, page 110:

For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

One of the main characters of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

By analogy with the Shakespearean character, a woman who is in love with a man from a family, party, or country opposing that of her own.


sponge

en-noun

sponge (countable and uncountable, plural sponges)

→ Hindi: स्पंज (spañj)

→ Japanese: スポンジ (suponji)

→ Korean: 스펀지 (seupeonji)

→ Pashto: سپنج (spanj)

→ Welsh: spynj

→ Malay: span

From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos).

(countable) A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.


brownie

brownie (countable and uncountable, plural brownies)

→ Belarusian: бра́ўні (bráŭni)

→ Chinese: 布朗尼 (bùlǎngní)

→ French: brownie

→ German: Brownie

→ Hungarian: brownie

→ Irish: donnóg (calque)

→ Italian: brownie

→ Japanese: ブラウニー (buraunī)

→ Lithuanian: braunis

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: brownie

→ Polish: brownie

→ Portuguese: brownie

→ Russian: бра́уни (bráuni)

→ Kazakh: брауни (brauni)

→ Spanish: brownie

→ Thai: บราวนี (bpraao-níi)

→ Turkish: brownie, browni, brovni

→ Welsh: browni

From brown + -ie (diminutive suffix). In folkloric sense, originally Scots.

Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the Eurasian genus Miletus.


uxorial

en-adj

uxorial (not generally comparable, comparative more uxorial, superlative most uxorial)

more uxorial (comparative)
most uxorial (superlative)

/ʌkˈsɔː.ɹɪ.əl/

From Latin uxōrius (“of or pertaining to a wife; overly fond of one’s wife”) + English -al (suffix forming adjectives). Uxōrius is derived from uxor (“wife”) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives).

der

(of or pertaining to a wife):

We ſtill ſay that a huſband hangs out the broom when his wife goes from home for a ſhort time; and on ſuch occaſions a broom beſom has been exhibited as a ſignal that the houſe was freed from uxorial reſtraint, and where the maſter might be conſidered as a temporary bachelor.

1778, William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, “Tempest”, in The Plays of William Shakespeare. in Ten Volumes. With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators; […], 2nd revised and augmented edition, London: Printed for C. Bathurst, […], →OCLC, act IV, scene i, page 86, footnote 3:

So that it appears, that while the man [of Ancient Greece or Rome] might, with impunity, prostitute his wife to all his connexions, the beautiful but enslaved victim was to be punished with death, if, after such prostitution of her person by the express command of her husband, her eye should stray to an object more agreeable to her fancy, than those appointed for her by her uxorial pander!

1800 May 16, [His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews], “Debate in the Lords on the Adultery Prevention Bill”, in [William Cobbett], editor, The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803. […] (House of Lords), volume XXXV, London: Printed by T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; [et al.], published 1819, →OCLC, column 239:

To marry with bridewealth is known as kukwa, and this form of union involves the allocation of both uxorial and genetricial rights to the husband. He is entitled to compensation in the case of adultery and he both receives and pays the bridewealth for his sons and daughters.

1973, Jack Goody, “Bridewealth and Dowry in Africa and Eurasia”, in Jack Goody, S[tanley] J[eyaraja] Tambiah, Bridewealth and Dowry, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press, →ISBN, page 16:

Both are middle-class wives and mothers who are socially isolated and disenchanted with their marriages. [...] Unable to escape their uxorial and maternal roles, both retreat into themselves.

1987, Esther Fuchs, “Self-conscious Heroism: And Moon in the Valley of Ajalon”, in Israeli Mythogynies: Women in Contemporary Hebrew Fiction (SUNY Series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, pages 115–116:

Jane [Eyre]'s nightmare of inarticulate desire suggests that more is at stake than common law, as Rochester seems to believe, or even ethical norms, such as she grapples with after learning his uxorial secret.

2000, Randall Craig, “Engaging Lies in Jane Eyre”, in Promising Language: Betrothal in Victorian Law and Fiction, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 121:

If none of the male relatives by blood could attend the funeral, then the paternal relatives by marriage (nasab), the benefactor (al-mawlā al-mun‘im) or his closest kinsman, the male relatives on the maternal side (dhawū arḥāmihi), and male strangers all vied for power [to lead in prayer]. In commanding this ritual, agnatic kinsmen outranked maternal and uxorial kinsmen.

2007, Leor Halevi, “The Politics of Burial and Tomb Construction”, in Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, →ISBN; paperback edition, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 174:

(not comparable) Of or pertaining to a wife, or her genes or relatives.

Riccabocca, the wiliest and most relentless of men in his maxims, melted into absolute uxorial imbecility at the sight of that mute distress.

1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XII, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book eighth, page 368:

He introduced the woman to his wife, feeling an unfamiliar uxorial pride as he did it, showing off Emily's angular beauty at forty-four to this worn and hollowed former girl, misshapen from labor and rural poverty, who might have been any age between thirty-five and fifty-five, and who had reached a plateau of endurance of which her body was a map.

2013, Thomas Keneally, chapter 19, in Shame and the Captives (A Knopf Book), North Sydney, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, December 2015, →ISBN, page 181:

(comparable) Devoted to one's wife; uxorious.


sportswoman

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

(UK) A woman who engages in sports; a female athlete.


chai

Borrowed from Romani ćhaj (“Romani girl, daughter”).

bor+

Coordinate term: chal


lipstick lesbian

en-noun

lipstick lesbian (plural lipstick lesbians)

Mona dashed to the window and peeped down at an elegantly dressed brunette waiting in the entrance alcove. She certainly looked like a friend of Serra's. The lipstick lesbians were everywhere.

1986 [1984], Armistead Maupin, Babycakes (Tales of the City), page 65:

(LGBTQ, slang) A lesbian who has glamorously feminine characteristics, as opposed to a butch lesbian.


diaphragm

/ˈdaɪəˌfɹæm/

From Ancient Greek διάφραγμα (diáphragma, “partition”), from διά (diá, “across”) and φράγμα (phrágma, “barrier”), from the verb φράσσω (phrássō).

мембра́на

anatomy: separating membrane or sheet of muscle

A contraceptive device consisting of a flexible cup, used to cover the cervix during intercourse.


flapper

possible etymologies
Possibly from Victorian sporting slang, meaning young wildfowl in August which are full-sized, tender and worthwhile quarry, but are naive and unable to fly properly due to the late development of flight feathers in ducks and geese. Alternative derivations are also suggested. The word "flap" was slang in the 17th century for a prostitute: by the late 19th century in England "flapper" could mean either a very young prostitute: or a teenage girl too old to be a child and too young to be considered 'out' in society: "A 'flapper', we may explain, is a young lady who has not yet been promoted to long frocks and the wearing of her hair 'up'".
The earliest documented use in the sense of "attractive young girl" is in the 1903 novel Sandford of Merton by Desmond Coke: "There's a stunning flapper.". The word also suggested a spirited girl of unconventional or mischievous disposition. An advertisement in The Times reads: "The father of a young lady, aged 15 – a typical “FLAPPER” – with all the self assurance of a woman of 30 would be grateful for the recommendation of a seminary (not a convent) where she might be placed for a year or two with the object of taming her."
By 1912 the word had apparently both crossed the Atlantic and evolved to mean a slightly older girl: British stage impresario John Tiller defined it for readers of The New York Times as meaning "a girl who has just "come out". She is at an awkward age, neither a child nor a woman...". The word had clearly caught on, as a Mme. Nordica is quoted using it in The New York Times of January 1, 1913: "...a thin little flapper of a girl donning a skirt in which she can hardly take a step, extinguishing all but her little white teeth with a dumpy bucket of a hat..."
By 1920 in England it clearly meant any young woman of a pleasure-seeking disposition: a Dr R. Murray-Leslie criticized "the social butterfly type...the frivolous, scantily-clad, jazzing flapper, irresponsible and undisciplined, to whom a dance, a new hat, or a man with a car, were of more importance than the fate of nations."

I paid violent and unusual attention to a flapper all through the meal in order to make you jealous. She's probably in her cabin writing reams about me to a fellow-flapper at this very moment.

1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Baker’s Dozen”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 107:

"Now," said the young man cheerfully to Ardita, who had witnessed this last scene in withering silence, "if you will swear on your honor as a flapper—which probably isn't worth much—that you'll keep that spoiled little mouth of yours tight shut for forty-eight hours, you can row yourself ashore in our rowboat."

1920 May 27, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The Offshore Pirate”, in Flappers and Philosophers, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published September 1920, →OCLC, page 13:

Concern—and consternation—about the flapper are general. She disports herself flagrantly in the public eye, and there is no keeping her out of grown-up company or conversation.

1922 April 16, Margaret O'Leary, “More Ado About the Flapper”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known as a chronicler of the 1920s and as the writer who, more than any other, identified, delineated, and popularized the female representative of that era, the flapper. Though it is an overstatement to say that Fitzgerald created the flapper, he did, with considerable assistance from his wife Zelda, offer the public an image of a young woman who was spoiled, sexually liberated, self-centered, fun-loving, and magnetic. […] Although she is often seen now as a mere fashion of the bygone Jazz Age, the flapper should be regarded as one of the great authentic characters in American history.

2002, Rena Sanderson, “8: Women in Fitzgerald's Fiction”, in Ruth Prigozy, editor, The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald, page 143:

Among McPherson's most passionate and visible advocates were Southern California's young flappers, who turned out in droves to cheer on the evangelist. While most fundamentalists vehemently criticized flappers, viewing them as symbols of moral decay and the decline of Victorian gender identities, McPherson had embraced them. Critics of her Bible college identified the young female ministers with whom she surrounded herself not as holdouts to Victorianism, but as outright flappers. The press even dubbed one of McPherson's most successful young protégés the flapper evangelist.

2009, Matthew Avery Sutton, Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America, page 125:

(colloquial, chiefly historical) A young woman, especially when unconventional or without decorum or displaying daring freedom or boldness; now particularly associated with the Jazz Age of the 1920s.


cleavage

en-noun

cleavage (countable and uncountable, plural cleavages)

[C]itellate annelids (leeches + oligochaetes) provide solid ground for comparative analyses, because they form a monophyletic group within the paraphyletic polychaetes[…]. […] The unequal cleavage of the zygote followed by the unequal cleavage of the CD cell is critical for D-quadrant specification since the cytoplasmic determinants present in teloplasm are segregated to the larger CD cell at first asymmetric cleavage and then to the larger D cell at the second asymmetric cleavage[…].

2008 spring, Dierdre Colleen Lyons, “Mechanisms Controlling the Asymmetric Second Cleavage”, in Mechanisms Controlling the Asymmetric Second Cleavage in the Helobdella Embryo (unpublished Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology dissertation), Berkeley, Calif.: University of California, Berkeley, →OCLC, page 16:

(biology) The repeated division of a cell into daughter cells after mitosis.


LC

LC (countable and uncountable, plural LCs)

lactation consultant
w:lactation consultant

(healthcare) Initialism of lactation consultant.


bint

Borrowed from Arabic بِنْت (bint, “girl, daughter”), from Proto-Semitic *bint-, used to denote a patronym.
The term entered the British lexicon during the occupation of Egypt at the end of the 19th century, where it was adopted by British soldiers to mean "girlfriend" or "bit on the side". Its register varies from that of the harsher bitch to being affectionate, the latter more commonly associated with the West Midlands. The term was used in British armed forces and the London area synonymously with bird in its slang usage (and sometimes brass) from at least the 1950s. (In the Tyneside shipping industry, particularly in Laygate, in South Shields, the term may have been adopted earlier, from the Yemeni community which had existed there since the 1890s.)

Tell that bint to get herself in here now!

Don't you remember the Crimbo din-din we had with the grotty Scots bint?

1997, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery:

If I went round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory) A woman, a girl.


delivery

delivery (countable and uncountable, plural deliveries)

From Middle English deliveri et al., from Anglo-Norman, from Old French delivrer.

(genetics) Process of introducing foreign DNA into host cells.


lassie

I had been on a message for my father, and was walking home along the road, when I saw a tall, fine lassie coming over the bogland on the right hand side of the road.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 27:

It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly. Witches pursued their wanchancy calling, bairns were spirited away, young lassies selled their souls to the Evil One, and the Accuser of the Brethren, in the shape of a black tyke, was seen about cottage doors in the gloaming.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

She was caught in this git-a-man, git-a-bairn, git-a-hoose shite that lassies git drummed intae them, and hud nae real chance ay defining hersel ootside ay they mashed-tattie-fir-brains terms ay reference.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “Bang to Rites”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 220:

Green grow the rushes, oh
Green grow the rushes, oh
The sweetest hours that e'er I spent
Are spent among the lassies, oh

2012, “Green Grow the Rushes”, performed by Celtic Woman:

(chiefly Scotland, Northern England, Geordie, Northumbria) A young girl, a lass, especially one seen as a sweetheart.


virago

Borrowed from Latin virāgō (“warlike or heroic woman”, literally “manlike”).

bor

Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361:

Joan was all Arden, grinning there, siding with her virago mother.

1964, Anthony Burgess, chapter III, in Nothing Like the Sun:

A woman given to undue belligerence or ill manner at the slightest provocation.


with child

Replaced earlier mid child. Compare Danish and Swedish med barn.

I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

[N]othing vvas more frightful to me than his Careſſes, and the Apprehenſions of being vvith Child again by him, vvas ready to throvv me into Fits; […]

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 118:

I should have had two children, but I find myself with only one. Yet he spends his time with other women who are already with child.

1999, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher, Zulu Woman:


womyn

From woman and women; respelled so as not to contain the word man or men. Compare myn.

Summoning all my courage, I touched and kissed a womyn for the first time. I cannot describe what I felt at that moment.

1980, Susan J Wolfe, Julia Penelope, The coming out stories:

I dug with my bare hands through the bullshit where beneath I discovered a womyn. She was an incredibly angry womyn, but a womyn nonetheless.

2004, Misty Marie, I Too was a Child...:

And I'm sure you know that so many straight womyn are so miserable that "going to the shrink" has become their major occupation, if they can afford it.

1983, Anita Cornwell, Black Lesbian in White America:

Likewise, simply dismissing post-operative male-to-female transsexuals as "men," and making an artificial distinction between "women" and "womyn" neither justifies their policy, nor eliminates any of the substantive issues involved.

1991 December 22, Davina Anne Gabriel, “Still More On Michigan”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 23, page 4:

Since the publication of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary (RHWCD) in the spring of 1991, no single dictionary entry has been the subject of more discussion, criticism, and controversy than the entry womyn (an alternative spelling of women).

1995, Sol Steinmetz, “Womyn: The Evidence”, in American Speech, volume 70, number 4, page 430:


niece-in-law

Someone's niece's wife (where same-sex marriage is recognised).

Someone's brother's daughter-in-law. (fraternal niece-in-law)

Someone's sister's daughter-in-law. (sororal niece-in-law)

Someone's spouse's sibling's daughter-in-law.

Someone's wife's brother's daughter-in-law.

Someone's wife's sister's daughter-in-law.

Someone's husband's brother's daughter-in-law.

Someone's husband's sister's daughter-in-law.

Someone's husband's niece. (Usually called a niece.)

Someone's wife's niece. (Usually called a niece.)


wimmin

Eye dialect, also used as a feminist spelling of the word women in order to deliberately exclude the word men, which is synchronically a component of women.

This is about wimmin sticking together (bois too), and fighting for equal rights and opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

2005, Dawn Keetley, Public Women, Public Words, page 425:

So eager was I to meet new wimmin-lovin' wimmin—or even just some womyn-lovin' womyn—one didn't need a Ouija board to figure out that I would fling myself forthwith into the world of regional Amazonia.

2011, Terry Castle, The Professor: And Other Writings, page 215:


mommy

→ Hebrew: מָאמִי (mámi)

The only bad-karma-reducing sposie on the market is a new line of biodegradable (meaning here "useless") sposie that won't last through the lightest of baby pees and will force you to change baby approximately once every thirty seconds, thereby completely undoing any so-called karma reduction. Only bad mommies use sposies.

2012, Willow Yamahchi, Bad Mommy, Insomniac Press, →ISBN, page 91:

They will never part even though in mommy's heart she wishes daddy would leave forever. One grief-some January 25 mommy rested never to return for her and daddy went on a walk. “Where is mommy”, said baby but daddy couldn't talk.

2015, Paul Easter, Consciousness Before Conscience:


frail

The scythe, the sickle and the flail (or "frail", is it is invariably called) - these should surely be incorporated in the county arms, for on their use much of the prosperity of Essex has always rested until now.

1948, C. Henry Warren, The English Counties, Essex: Odhams, page 170:

(England, dialectal, obsolete) Synonym of flail.


gravid

en-adj

gravid (comparative more gravid, superlative most gravid)

more gravid (comparative)
most gravid (superlative)

From Latin gravidus (“laden, pregnant”), from gravis (“heavy”).

In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations; and Eros, beautifully and irresponsibly free, will flit like a gay butterfly from flower to flower through a sunlit world.

1921, Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus:

The gravest problems of obstetrics and forensic medicine were examined with as much animation as the most popular beliefs on the state of pregnancy such as the forbidding to a gravid woman to step over a country stile lest, by her movement, the navelcord should strangle her creature

1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

One slender hand was raised in a graceful gesture gravid with meaning.

2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 345:

The minute she'd settled into the seat next to him, her billowing widow's rig had got redisposed to reveal her neatly gravid waistline, at which, now, he nodded.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Bilocations”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 507:

(of egglaying animals, now chiefly figuratively) Pregnant.

հղի

pregnant (now used chiefly of egg-laying animals, or metaphorically)


From Nan, pet form of the formerly very common female given names Anne and Agnes. As a nursemaid and grandmother, a clipping of earlier nana, from nanny under the probable influence of mama, also from Nan. Compare Mary.

We had my nan over for Christmas dinner.

(British, Ireland, Australia, Canada, endearing) Synonym of grandmother.


pug

Origin unknown, possibly related to West Flemish pugge (“(adjective) small; (noun) short person; pet name derived from the first name Pugge”); though it is uncertain whether sense 1 (“senses relating to someone or something small”) and sense 2 (“senses relating to people”) are derived from the same source.
Sense 1.8 (“small demon”) was probably influenced by, though not a variant of, puck.

pentu

any of various animals, such as a ferret, hare, squirrel, or young salmon

[Ulysses] ty'd his deafen'd Sailors (vvhile he paſs'd / The dreadful Lady's Lodgings) to the Maſt, / And rather venture drovvning, than to vvrong / The Sea-pugs chaſte Ears vvith a bavvdy Song: […]

a. 1681 (date written), Samuel Butler, “Satyr”, in R[obert] Thyer, editor, The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, […], volume I, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1759, →OCLC, page 77, lines 143–146:

(nautical) A cabin boy, a shipboy or ship's boy.

Senses relating to people.
A cabin boy, a shipboy or ship's boy.


vamp

From Middle English vaumpe, vaum-pei, vampe (“covering for the foot, perhaps a slipper or understocking; upper of a boot or shoe”), or from Anglo-Norman vampe, *vaumpé (“part of a stocking covering the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpied, avantpiet, variants of avantpié, from avant (“in front”) + pié (“foot”).
Noun senses 2 and 3 (“a patch; something patched up or improvised”) appear to have been extended from sense 1 (“top part of a boot or shoe”). Sense 4 (“repeated and often improvised musical accompaniment”) was probably derived from sense 3, and sense 5 (“activity to fill or stall for time”) from sense 4.
The verb senses were derived from the noun. Compare also Middle English vaum-peien (“(uncertain) to repair (footwear) with a new upper or vamp; to fabricate an upper or vamp”).

The flow of water was in my ears, and in my eyes a hazy spreading, and upon my brain a closure, as a cobbler sews a vamp up.

1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XX, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, pages 279–280:

'Yes, I am rather cracked in the vamp,' he said freely, seeing that the eyes of the shepherd's wife fell upon his boots, 'and I am not well fitted either. I have had rough times lately, and have been forced to pick up what I can get in the way of wearing, but I must find a suit better fit for working days when I reach home.'

1883 March, Thomas Hardy, “The Three Strangers”, in Wessex Tales: Strange, Lively, and Commonplace […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 24:

Their dark brown shoes had hand-stitched vamps.

1976, Chaim Grade, translated by Curt Leviant, The Yeshiva, Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, →ISBN, page 164:

The top part of a boot or shoe, above the sole and welt and in front of the ankle seam, that covers the instep and toes; the front part of an upper; the analogous part of a stocking.


vamp

A Fool There Was (1915 film)
Derby shoe
Oxford shoe
Theda Bara

Clipping of vampire. From a character type developed first for silent film, notably for Theda Bara's role in the 1915 film A Fool There Was.
The verb is derived from the noun.

It is the vamp who has a sense of humor that can really hold a man. She laughs at him, even as she is seeking to allure him—and he adores it.

1919 June, Renee Van Dyke, “Interesting Paragraphs about the Players”, in Geo[rge] M. Downs, Jr., editor, The Photo-play World, volume 2, number 8, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Downs Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 59, column 3:

She was got up to the best of her ability as a siren, more popularly a "vamp"—a picker up and thrower away of men, an unscrupulous and fundamentally unmoved toyer with affections.

1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The Connoisseur of Kisses”, in The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book 1, page 95:

"Lady Miriam?" said Jarvis in surprise. "Oh, yes. … I suppose you mean that she looks a queer sort of vamp. But you've no notion what even the ladies of the best families are looking like nowadays.[…]"

1927 September, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Actor and the Alibi”, in The Secret of Father Brown, London, Toronto, Ont.: Cassell and Company, →OCLC, page 148:

Well, her seclusion is considered suspicious. She annoys them by being good-looking and even what is called good style. And all the young men are warned against her as a vamp.

1936, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Vampire of the Village”, in The Penguin Complete Father Brown, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, London: Penguin Books, published 1985, →OCLC, page 707:

[…]strait-laced Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John, transformed herself into a vamp to bag the man of her dreams

2021 January 2, Katie Hind, “Grease is 'racist, rapey, homophobic and slut-shaming' and should never be shown on TV again, say woke snowflakes”, in The Daily Mail:

A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her; femme fatale.


vamp

en-verb

vamp (third-person singular simple present vamps, present participle vamping, simple past and past participle vamped)

vamps (present singular third-person)
vamping (participle present)
vamped (participle past)
vamped (past)

We want a musical-comedy star to vamp a Senator or a member of the Cabinet; we want the protective tariff revised up or down because of an actress' whim; we want scarlet scandal in high life. And we are not likely to get them.

1926 November, Gilbert Seldes, “Exit the Poor Actor!: Out at Elbow No Longer, Our Players To-day are among America’s Most Prosperous Citizens”, in Arthur Hornblow, editor, Theatre Magazine, volume XLIV, number 308, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Magazine Company, →OCLC, page 58, column 4:

"People who lose all their charity generally lose all their logic," remarked Father Brown. "It's rather ridiculous to complain that she keeps to herself; and then accuse her of vamping the whole male population."

She smiled again. Batted her lashes and laid down a few more mascara tracks. Vamping in order to maintain composure.

1990 October, Jonathan Kellerman, chapter 27, in Time Bomb, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 321:

She vamps this month on the cover of British Vogue, a portrait of artfully crafted provocation.

2021 May 4, Ruth La Ferla, “On That Bombshell Billie Eilish Cover for British Vogue”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(transitive, intransitive) To seduce or exploit someone.


vamp

Uncertain; possibly related to vamp (etymology 1, above): see the 2008 quotation.

John Mackin is one of the old-timers of the new Department. He was a volunteer fireman as well, […] John Mackin was among the number of "old vamps" who made application to the first Board of Fire Commissioners for appointment in the Paid Department.

1892, “Companies of the Seventh District”, in Our Firemen: The Official History of the Brooklyn Fire Department, from the First Volunteer to the Latest Appointee. Compiled from the Records of the Department, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [Brooklyn Fire Department], →OCLC, page 371:

The vamps had to carry their equipment to the fire on foot!

2000, “History of the Atlanta Fire Department”, in History of Service: Atlanta Fire Department Commemorative Yearbook, Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 25, column 1:

Volunteer firemen are called vamps because they often went to fires on foot, vamp being an old English word for "walk." Syosset's first vamps responded quickly to fires and formed bucket brigades to extinguish them.

2008, John Delin, “The Vamps, Syosset’s Bravest”, in Syosset People and Places (Images of America), Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 88:


misogynist

From Ancient Greek μισογύνης (misogúnēs), from μισέω (miséō, “I hate”) + γυνή (gunḗ, “woman”), equivalent to misogyny + -ist.

One who displays prejudice against or looks down upon women.


breech

en-noun

breech (countable and uncountable, plural breeches)

From Middle English breche, from Old English brēċ, from Proto-Germanic *brōkiz pl, from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“clothing for loins and thighs”). Cognate with Dutch broek, Alemannic German Bruech, Swedish brok. Doublet of vraka.


breech

(obstetrics, of birth) With the hips coming out before the head.


breech

(obstetrics) Born, or having been born, breech.


bridal

From Middle English bridale, from Old English brȳdealo (“wedding ale; wedding feast”). The attributive usage was strengthened by association with bride + -al.

inh

bridal ornaments; a bridal outfit; a bridal chamber

Of or pertaining to a bride, or to wedding; nuptial.


dolly

Welsh: doli

From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for applying it to such devices unobvious, compares how the names jack, jenny and jimmy are also applied to devices.

rattaat

term not specific to bridge construction

But really you get your money from selling things — that's your line, and your Dad's isn't it? Using sexy dollies to con money out of people who've had to work for it. Well my daughter's not just a sugar-plum fairy to titillate men's fantasies, you know.

1978, John McGrath, Yobbo nowt, page 39:

This glorious collection should be passed around clubland as a textbook study in making a seamless transition from being a disco dolly to a serious pop vocalist.

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
w:Green's Dictionary of Slang

(slang) A young woman, especially one who is frivolous or vapid.

Spotlight on the other hand is remarkable for prices and skirt lengths to suit the teenyboppers[…] Appeal: to a lunchtime horde of date-going dollies who cannot really afford another dress.

1969 April 8, Prudence Glynn, “246 yards of fashion”, in The Times, page 6:

(slang, UK, dated) A fashionable young woman, one who follows the latest music or clothing fashions.

(gambling) A marker placed on the winning number by the dealer at roulette.


gestation

en-noun

gestation (countable and uncountable, plural gestations)

/d͡ʒɛsˈteɪʃən/

The period of time during which an animal or human offspring physically develops inside the mother's body until it is born.

xestación

period of time a fetus develops inside mother's body — see also pregnancy


glans

Learned borrowing from Latin glāns (“acorn”).

حَشَفَة

structure at the extremity of the penis and of the clitoris


hag

From Middle English hagge, hegge (“demon, old woman”), shortening of Old English hægtesse, hægtes (“harpy, witch”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagatussjā. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Häkse (“witch”), Dutch heks, German Hexe (“witch”). Doublet of hex.

And that olde hag that with a staffe his staggering lymbes dooth stay

1565, Arthur Golding (tr.), The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P. Ouidius Nasos worke intitled Metamorphosis, London: William Seres, The Fovrthe Booke:

Such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows, that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist, in the time of the New England hags, had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 11:

A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a female wizard.


housewife

en-noun

housewife (plural housewives or housewifes)

From Middle English houswyf, housewif, huswijf, equivalent to house + wife; a doublet of hussy, which it was long-distinguished with and displaced due to gradual negative connotation (see Online Etymology Dictionary entry). Cognate with German Hausweib.

It was a housewife, containing needles, a bodkin, and thread; ‘and, do you know,’ added he, ‘it was the most useful thing she could have given me, for it lasted all the time I was at Rome to mend my clothes with […].’

1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 246:

Woffington's housewife, made by herself, homely to the eye, but holds everything in the world

1852, Tom Taylor, Charles Reade, Masks and Faces, act II:

The "soldier's housewife" was a small sewing kit that was carried to make timely repairs to clothing and equipment.

1997, David L. Phillips, A Soldier's Story, MetroBooks, →ISBN, page 61:

(plural "housewifes") A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work.


hussy

From earlier hussive, hussif, the regular evolution of Middle English houswyf (“housewife”), equivalent to house + wife. Modern housewife is a restoration of the compound (and thus is a doublet), after its component parts had become unrecognisable through regular phonetic change, as well as gradual negative senses and historical factors.
The traditional pronunciation of the word is /ˈhʌzi/; the pronunciation with /s/ is a spelling pronunciation.

WIRTHIN. Well, I should think so! They just dote on that hussy—can't seem to get enough of her. Gretchen tells me so herself. And the care she takes of them!

1892, Mark Twain, Meisterschaft: In Three Acts, act III, scene I, page 199:

Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

A cheeky or disrespectful girl; a woman showing inappropriate or improper behavior.

наха́лница

a cheeky or disrespectful girl; a woman showing inappropriate or improper behaviour

(obsolete) A case or bag for needles, thread, etc.

иго́льник

(obsolete) a case or bag for needles, thread, etc


insemination

insemination (countable and uncountable, plural inseminations)

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

At the same time there is no fantasy, as there is in the teleportage of science fiction, or in the Greek myth that requires the insemination of a woman by a swan.

2010, Jeffrey Boss, Human Consciousness of God in the Book of Job, page 158:

The introduction of sperm into a female’s reproductive system for the purpose of impregnating (making pregnant).

تَخْصِيب

introduction of sperm into a female's reproductive system


mammy

That's what you for—to help white folks keep niggers down. That's why he sent you to me. They be calling you mammy in a few years. You be running the whole house when the old man dies.

(US, historical, often pejorative) In the southern United States, a black nanny employed to look after white children; or in the antebellum South, a female slave who was close to the household and looked after the children.


marge

Had four bills and I bought me a car / Little red whip that I bought for my marge

2015, Stormzy (lyrics and music), “Shut Up” (track 15), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy:

I think about my family too. My dad and his failing heart. My marge and her church. I think about what they'll do once I'm gone. Think about the way out, the blue space above.

2018, Guy Gunaratne, In Our Mad and Furious City, London: Tinder Press, →ISBN, page unknown:


nanny

Constantijn Huygens Jr.
Nanny (disambiguation)

(1795) It has often been assumed that the English term was originally a widespread child's word for "female adult other than mother" (compare Greek νάννα (nánna, “aunt”), nanna). See also Welsh nain (“grandmother”).
On the other hand, according to recent research of the Dutch historical linguists Hans Beelen and Nicoline van der Sijs (published in Onze Taal, September 2018), on which see also etymologiebank.nl, in Dutch), the term nanny (and the British colloquial nan for "grandmother") may actually be eponymous, viz. being originally an affective form (i.e. a hypocoristic) of the popular female name Anne. The Dutch statesman and scientist Constantijn Huygens Jr. made the following observation during one of his many sojourns in England (noted in his Journaal, dated 13 December 1692): "Yesterday I received 10lb of chocolate again, from niece Becker, and she had Nanny, her maid, bringing me the money that she had owed me" (Gisteren kreegh 10 ℔ choccolate wederom van nicht Becker, en had Nanny, haer meidt, geweest om mij 't geldt, dat van haer hebben most, te brengen). Beelen and van der Sijs therefore assumed that "since many female domestic servants were named "Nan" or "Nanny", the name became a sobriquet for the profession of "maid, childminder" in the 18ᵗʰ century". ("Omdat veel vrouwelijke huisbedienden in het Engels de voornaam Nan of Nanny hadden, verschoof de betekenis in de achttiende eeuw naar die van een beroepsaanduiding: ‘meid, kindermeisje’")

onomatopoeic

child's word

Breeding is a consuming goal, and the ascendance of the sex drive is nearly as apparent in the behavior of a mountain goat billy. So given over is he to following and defending a succession of nannies as he searches for one in heat (estrus), he loses interest in food altogether; […]

1983, Douglas H. Chadwick, A Beast the Color of Winter: The Mountain Goat Observed, Bison Books, published 2002, →ISBN, page 159:

Nannies and billies look very similar, both having dangerously sharp, curved black horns.

2005, Richard Cannings, The Rockies: A Natural History, Greystone Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 103:

A farmer friend keeps a video camera in the barn so she can turn on her goat cam and observe her animals at any time of the day or night. A baby monitor picks up the sounds of a nanny when she goes into labor—if the nanny is one who changes the usual pitch of her voice or nervously bleats during kidding.

2013, Janet Hurst, The Whole Goat Handbook: Recipes, Cheese, Soap, Crafts & More, Voyageur Press, published 2013, →ISBN, page 28:


prenatal

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

A person who is expecting to give birth.

She was recommended a course of zinc prenatals.

A dietary supplement to be taken by somebody expecting to give birth.


prophylactic

en-adj

prophylactic (comparative more prophylactic, superlative most prophylactic)

more prophylactic (comparative)
most prophylactic (superlative)

From Latin, from Ancient Greek πρό (pró, “before”) + φύλαξις (phúlaxis, “a watching, guarding”).

Serving to prevent or protect against an undesired effect, especially disease or pregnancy


tabby

en-noun

tabby (countable and uncountable, plural tabbies)

Mid 17th century French tabis, from Arabic عَتَّابِيّ (ʕattābiyy), ultimately from Arabic الْعَتَّابِيَّة (al-ʕattābiyya), a quarter of Baghdad (named for a Prince عَتَّاب (ʕattāb)) which is associated with the manufacture of a certain type of waved silk. See also taffeta, another type of silk whose name derives from the Persian تافته (tâfta, “woven cloth”) and shares a similar etymological origin.

uder

الْعَتَّابِيَّة

(countable, archaic) An old maid or gossip.


unborn

en-noun

unborn (countable and uncountable, plural unborns)

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

From Middle English unborn, from Old English unboren, from Proto-Germanic *unburanaz. Equivalent to un- + born.

Whereas the lack of a child brings shame upon Anna and Joachim, the converse holds true for Mary: the existence of an unborn in the womb of a woman who is supposed to be a virgin causes great scandal.

2009, Catherine Playoust, Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, “The Leaping Child: Imagining the Unborn in Early Christian Literature”, in Vanessa R. Sasson, Jane Marie Law, editors, Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 176:

(countable) A single unborn offspring at any stage of gestation.


vestal

From Latin Vesta, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. More at was.

Of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth.

Does money fail?—come to my mint—coin paper,
Till gold be at a discount, and ashamed
To show his bilious face, go purge himself,
In emulation of her vestal whiteness.

1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:


vestal

A virgin consecrated to Vesta, and to the service of watching the sacred fire, which was to be perpetually kept burning upon her altar; a vestal virgin.

A female virgin; a woman who has never had sexual relations.


Bond girl

Sam scowled. 'I hate villains who call me Miss Jones,' she told him. 'It makes me feel like a Bond girl.'

1998, Justin Richards, chapter 12, in Option Lock, page 232:

When a lunch companion suggested that she might not want to take the Halle Berry route should she be nominated for an Oscar for "Monster," and win — soul-searching performance followed by a turn as a Bond girl — Theron threw her head back and howled.

One of the beautiful, seductive young women who appear in James Bond movies.


GC

GC (countable and uncountable, plural GCs)

GCs prove everyday they're actually just critical of trans people, not critical of gender

2021 November 19, Yana (@lesbian_envy), Twitter:

That’s LITERALLY what trans activists say and what GCs are fighting against.

2021 November 28, SophieXY (@SophieXY44), Twitter:

When I pointed out the other day that prominent GCs had been pretty silent on #RoeVsWade or had tried deflecting onto trans people, I had this response from a GC.

2022 June 26, Lee WilliamDesigns (@designs_william), Twitter:

(informal) Initialism of gender critical.


butch

en-adj

butch (comparative butcher or more butch, superlative butchest or most butch)

butcher (comparative)
more butch (comparative)
butchest (superlative)
most butch (superlative)

Originally, it was probably used as an abbreviation of butcher. Later, in the 1940s, the sense “masculine lesbian” developed.

There, look, Mr. Horne! Vada that great butch lucoddy!

1967, Barry Took, Marty Feldman, Round the Horne, spoken by Sandy (Kenneth Williams):

Nor can I credit that a — to put it crudely — proud bisexual butch Italian — albeit one lonely, poor, emotional and without strong will — which Giovanni is shown to be in the earlier part of the book, should become, in a mere matter of months, and as the result of any happening, the venal hysterical fairy that he does.

1979, Colin MacInnes, Out of the way: later essays:

Then I started going out with different kinds of women, and I started feeling more like I wanted to be more butch. […] I feel much more butch than I feel femme.

1998, Kath Weston, Render Me, Gender Me: Lesbians Talk Sex, Class, Color, Nation, Studmuffins, Columbia University Press, →ISBN:

The process of appreciating a butch aesthetic may be even more complex for bisexual butch women. In contrast to lesbian butches who may date only within a butch-femme community, bisexual butch women may be more likely to […] In comparison to butch bisexual women, it may be easier for femme bisexual women to locate male and female dating partners […]

2007, Beth A. Firestein, Becoming Visible: Counseling Bisexuals Across the Lifespan, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 305:

More of the rotten responses I receive about being a bisexual butch woman come from other bisexuals, particularly men, who don't want to deal with any woman who is not some Barbie doll standard of femininity.

2014, Naomi S Tucker, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions, Routledge, →ISBN, page 186:

"Faye got wicked buff and has a super butch haircut and it is hot as shit." "It's okay, babe. We can ogle her together."

2016, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 3154: Coupling:

(slang, originally Polari) Very masculine, with a masculine appearance or attitude.


bag lady

(informal) A homeless woman who carries her possessions with her in bags.


old lady

His wife was asking where their savings account balance had gone, but the way he put it was that his old lady was ragging him about his pay rate.

“[…] Now if that thing is balling—and your old lady or your old man is off somewhere flashing and doesn't want to be touched—well, you get put down on acid, you can be on a bummer for months.”

1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:

But you know it could be a hassle / Trying to explain myself to a police officer / About how it was your old lady got herself stiffed

1978, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Street Hassle”, in Street Hassle:

(slang, US) One's girlfriend, wife or significant other.

老婆

one's girlfriend, wife or significant other

Old Lady of Threadneedle Street
Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

(informal, UK) The Bank of England, sometimes referred to as the “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” or simply “The Old Lady”.


matriarch

/ˈmeɪtɹɪˌɑːk/

Of Latin origin, via or reinforced by Old French matriarche, from Latin māter (“mother”) + -archa, -arches, from Ancient Greek -άρχης (-árkhēs), from ἀρχός (arkhós, “chief”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin, rule, command”). By surface analysis, matri- + -arch.

matriarca

a female leader of a family, a tribe or an ethnic or religious group

A female leader of a family, a tribe or an ethnic or religious group.

The dominant female in a family group of elephants

A female founder of a political or religious movement, an organization or an enterprise.


conceive

en-verb

conceive (third-person singular simple present conceives, present participle conceiving, simple past and past participle conceived)

conceives (present singular third-person)
conceiving (participle present)
conceived (participle past)
conceived (past)

From Middle English conceyven, from Old French concevoir, conceveir, from Latin concipiō, concipere (“to devise, to conceive”).

der

Can you conceive of him as a leader?

We shall, / As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount / Before you, Lepidus.

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals), page 4:

[…]you will hardly conceive him to have been bred in the ſame Climate […]

1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page lxii:

Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Remember, if you please, that the man you call slave sprang from the same seed, enjoys the same daylight, breathes like you, lives like you, dies like you. You can as easily conceive him a free man as he can conceive you a slave.

2008 [c. 65 CE], Seneca the Younger, “Letter on Slaves”, in Andrew Bailey et al., editors, The Broadview Anthology of Social and Political Thought, volume 1, →ISBN, page 258:

(transitive, intransitive with of, ditransitive) To imagine (as); to have a conception of; to form a representation of.


Wonder Woman

All Star Comics
Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo
DC Comics
Introducing Wonder Woman
William Moulton Marston

From wonder + woman. The character, created by William Moulton Marston (1893–1947) and Harry George Peter (1880–1958), first appeared in the story “Introducing Wonder Woman” from DC Comics’ All Star Comics #8 dated December 1941.

In 1 Samuel 25, there is a great example of a guy who had a Wonder Woman 31 but failed to value her wisdom. This rich, stupid husband was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail.

2007, Jess MacCallum, I Married Wonder Woman… Now What?: A Superhero's Guide for Leading and Loving the Proverbs 31 Wife, Cincinnati, Oh.: Standard Publishing, →ISBN, page 84:

"I am working for our local 'Maternal Health Center' clinic," she [Olive Byrne] wrote to Margaret Sanger, "and am most amused when they speak of you. Somehow they think you are a contemporary of Florence Nightingale." It was as if Sanger had lived in another century, a Wonder Woman of History.

2014, Jill Lepore, “Love for All”, in The Secret History of Wonder Woman, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN:

(by extension of the proper noun) A woman of extraordinary powers; a superwoman.


Athena

From Middle English Athena, from Latin Athēna, from Ancient Greek Ἀθηνᾶ (Athēnâ). Doublet of Athina.


Athena

The last thing feminist Athenas see about corporate structures, government, or academia is that they are run by benevolent and all-protective fathers.

1989, Jennifer Barker Woolger, Roger J. Woolger, The goddess within:

The latter may become either Athenas or feminists. If one gets a certain sort of male sponsorship, becomes a Daddy's girl, one is allowed to function in these vocations of the righteous […]

1992, Marilyn Frye, Willful virgin: essays in feminism, 1976-1992, page 141:

Women who do decide to become scientists find themselves under attack from the self-proclaimed "echt" feminists, who call them "Athenas" and "Queen Bees."

1995, Noretta Koertge, Skeptical Inquirer, volume 19, number 2, page 42:

(feminism, derogatory, figurative) A woman who colludes with the patriarchy rather than actively opposing it.


feminism

en-noun

feminism (countable and uncountable, plural feminisms)

From French féminisme circa 1837, ultimately from Latin fēminīnus, from fēmina (“woman”). First recorded in English in 1851, originally meaning "the state of being feminine." Sense of "advocacy of women's rights" is from 1895.

equalism

ideology promoting treating the sexes (or other human divisions) equally

His hair is delicate and silky, and of a light chesnut[sic]—one of M. Lorrain's signs of feminism.

1875 July 24, The Medical Times and Gazette, volume II, page 105:

(obsolete) The state of being feminine; femininity.


achi

(Philippines, Chinese Filipino, colloquial) the eldest sister

(Philippines, Chinese Filipino, colloquial, informal) an elder sister

(Philippines, Chinese Filipino, colloquial, familiar) a young female senior (usually within the Chinese Filipino community)

(Philippines, Chinese Filipino, colloquial) respectful term of address for the eldest sister

(Philippines, Chinese Filipino, colloquial, informal) respectful term of address for an elder sister

(Philippines, Chinese Filipino, colloquial, familiar) respectful term of address for a young female senior (usually within the Chinese Filipino community)


breast milk

breast milk (countable and uncountable, plural breast milks)

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


tomboy

→ Bikol Central: tomboy

→ Cebuano: tomboy

→ Spanish: tomboy

→ Tagalog: tomboy

From tom + boy. First attested in Ralph Roister Doister (published 1567, written circa 1552), where it is used to describe a boisterous girl; the OED says the citation is however "generally taken" to mean a boisterous boy, and says that a use in The Old Law (published 1656, thought to have been written circa 1599) "certainly" means a boy: "must young court-tits / play tomboys' tricks with her?" By 1579 it was attested in the meaning "an immodest woman", and by no later than 1592 it had developed its modern meaning of a “girl who acts like a boy”.

(Philippines, colloquial) A lesbian; a butch.


gynaecology

gynaecology (usually uncountable, plural gynaecologies)


policewoman

(law enforcement) A female police officer.


besom

From Middle English besme, beseme, from Old English besma, besema (“besom, broom, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic *besmō (“broom”).

"Eh, but she was a besom, if a' tales be true !"

1903, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Dark O' the Moon: A Novel, page 130:

Janet's eyes began to look dim, and I had to frown at her very hard; then I had to turn my frown on Jean ... and Janet, the besom, took advantage of my divided attention.

1917, A.S. Neill., A Dominie Dismissed, page 10:

Uncle Angus went on about the behavior of the car. "She's a besom, a proper besom, her and her gears. She'll be the death of me yet one of these days."

1963, Margaret McLean MacPherson, The Shinty Boys, page 187:

"She's a besom but no' bad at times, like now," Agnes said as she bit into a dough-ring.

(Scotland, Northern England, derogatory) A troublesome woman.


pregnant

en-adj

pregnant (comparative more pregnant, superlative most pregnant)

more pregnant (comparative)
most pregnant (superlative)

Apparently from Middle French pregnant, preignant (“pressing, compelling”), present participle of prembre (“to press”), from Latin premere (“to press”).

Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:


protection

en-noun

protection (countable and uncountable, plural protections)

/pɹəˈtɛkʃən/

From Middle English, from Old French, from stem of Late Latin prōtectiō (“a covering over”), from Latin prōtēctus, perfect passive participle of prōtegere (“to protect, cover in front”). Displaced native Old English ġesċildnes.

der

A means, such as a condom, of preventing pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease.


bridesmaid

From bride + -s- + maid. Sports/entertainment sense: in reference to the saying always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

I'd love to be your bridesmaid at the wedding.

I was promised sex. Everybody said it. You'll be a bridesmaid, you'll get sex, you'll be fighting 'em off. But not so much as a tongue in sight.

1994, Richard Curtis, Four Weddings and a Funeral, spoken by Lydia (Sophie Thompson):

A woman who attends a bride during her wedding ceremony, as part of the main wedding party.

strooimeisie

woman who attends the bride at a wedding ceremony


maid of honor

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-maid of honor.wav

The primary woman who attends the bride at a wedding ceremony.

шаферка

the primary woman who attends the bride at a wedding ceremony


childbirth

en-noun

childbirth (usually uncountable, plural childbirths)

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

From Middle English childbyrth [and other forms], perhaps a partial calque of Old Norse barnburðr (“childbearing, childbirth”, literally “bairn birth”); equivalent to child + birth. Compare Swedish barnsbörd (“childbirth”), Icelandic barnsburður (“childbirth”).

der

The preference for tightness during intercourse is so well known in Western culture that U.S. obstetricians even have a term for the extra stitch they often perform when doing episiotomy repairs following childbirth: the "husband's stitch." The husband's stitch is intended to produce a smaller vaginal opening, to counteract the natural stretching of the tissues from sexual activity and childbirth and even to make the opening more constricted than it might have been before.

2001, Ellen Gruenbaum, The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective:

The fact or action of giving birth to a child, as the culmination of pregnancy.


heroine

From Latin hērōīna, from late Ancient Greek ἡρωΐνη (hērōḯnē) (2nd century), a feminine equivalent of ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero, demigod”), equivalent to hero + -ine (suffix forming feminine nouns).
* English from 1587. The sense of "female lead character" is from 1715.

suf

Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:


brunette

Borrowed from French brunette, the feminine form of brunet, from brun (“brown”). Doublet of burnet.

And M. [Henri-François-Alphonse] Esquiros, in describing the Dutch generally, speaks of beauties both blondes and brunettes, ‘for black hair is not uncommon in the Netherlands.’ These words seem to imply that black hair does not preponderate; and, if not, there must be a marked difference between the Dutch and the English. Here again is confirmation of the opinion that the modern English are somewhat more dark-haired than the ancient Saxons.

1866, Luke Owen Pike, “The Evidence of Physical Characteristics”, in The English and Their Origin. A Prologue to Authentic English History., London: Longmans, Green, and Co., pages 145–146:

The housekeeper, a very decorative brunette of thirty-five with a pseudo-English accent, greeted him with a mixture of grateful effusion and condescending patronage.

1946, William Hatfield, Buffalo Jim, Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege, page 70:

Brownheads or brunettes use a darker red than blondes and redheads.

A person, especially female, with brown hair.

سَمْرَاء

a person, especially female, with brown hair


surrogate mother

en-noun

surrogate mother (plural surrogate mothers)

A woman who gives birth to a child with the intent to give this child to at least one of the biological parents (not including herself, if she is one of them)

أُمّ بَدِيلَة

woman who gives birth to a child not her own


birth control

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birth control
en:Comstock Law
en:Margaret Sanger
en:The Woman Rebel

Margaret Sanger coined the term "birth control" in 1914, using it in the July 1914 issue of The Woman Rebel, and was criminally indicted for it in August 1914, under the Comstock Law for obscenity in print.

Voluntary control of the number of children conceived, especially by the planned use of contraception.

izeeʼ bichįʼ doo ichį́į́ dahí

voluntary control of the number of children conceived

BC

BC; birth control; US Navy standard issue eyeglass frames euphemistically referred to as or due to their unattractiveness

Any technique used to prevent the birth of a child (such as abortion or preventing conception).


miss

miss (countable and uncountable, plural misses)

Here's my report, miss.

A term of address by a student for a female teacher.


mistress

→ Japanese: ミストレス (misutoresu)

From Middle English maistresse, from Old French maistresse (whence French maîtresse), feminine of maistre (“master”). By surface analysis, mist(e)r + -ess.

male equivalent: master

games mistress


strumpet

From Middle English strumpet, strompet, strumpett. Further origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch strompen (“to stalk”) or strompe (“stocking”); or Late Latin stuprum (“violation”) or stuprare (“to violate”).


gynocentrism

We Americans have not so much need to take his admonitions to heart as Continental Europeans, seeing that captious critics are prone to regard us as suffering rather from gynocentrism than anthropocentrism.

1897, “Book Reviews and Notes”, in The Open Court, volume 11, page 575:

An ideological focus on females, and issues affecting them, possibly to the detriment of non-females.


androcentrism

An ideological focus on males and men, and issues affecting them, possibly to the detriment of non-males.


gynocentric

en-adj

gynocentric (comparative more gynocentric, superlative most gynocentric)

more gynocentric (comparative)
most gynocentric (superlative)

Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting gynocentrism; focused on females.


androcentric

androcentric (comparative more androcentric, superlative most androcentric)

more androcentric (comparative)
most androcentric (superlative)

Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting androcentrism; focused on males.


pregnancy

en-noun

pregnancy (countable and uncountable, plural pregnancies)

pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy

The period of time this condition prevails.


mum

Alternative form of mam, or an abbreviation of mummy. Compare mom, mama.

From the Marvel Mixmaster to the Miracle Microwave, every time a new-fangled gadget has lobbed into the Aussie kitchen, Aussie mums have changed their cooking styles accordingly.

1987, Kerry Cue, Hang On To Your Horses Doovers, page 5:

'Ooh Mum, Auntie don′t allow smokin’ - Pat′s eyes were round with awe as Mum struck a match.

1993, Hilda Hollingsworth, Places of Greater Safety, Zenobia Press edition, page 278:

Her mum says that she is deaf and only partially sighted, so I need to go and stand in front of her, so she can see the gift.

2004, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Hansen, Irene Dunlap, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul 2, page 336:

“Mum! Mum!” he shouted out. The laughter stopped. Two bright, sparkling yellow eyes peeped from the hollow. Atop her head were the fluffy ear tufts that his mum was so proud of because they were fuller and lovelier than those of most Great Horned Owls. It was indeed his mum!

2006, Kathryn Lasky, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Book 11: To Be a King, page 88

2011, Chyna, FAM: Rolling in a London Girl Gang, unnumbered page,
He′s looking at my mum, at her swollen eyes, busted nose and bloodied lips. She′s mashed up something chronic, and the man who did this to her is my dad.

(Commonwealth, Ireland, informal) Mother.


expect

en-verb

expect (third-person singular simple present expects, present participle expecting, simple past and past participle expected)

expects (present singular third-person)
expecting (participle present)
expected (participle past)
expected (past)

From Latin expectāre, infinitive form of exspectō (“look out for, await, expect”), from ex (“out”) + spectō (“look at”), frequentative of speciō (“see”).

when you least expect it

I expect to be able to walk again after getting over my broken leg.

He never expected to be discovered.

We ended up waiting a little longer than we had expected

The doctor said he expected me to make a full recovery.

“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

And temperatures are expected to keep rising.

2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns:

(transitive, intransitive) To predict or believe that something will happen

تَوَقَّعَ

to look for, look forward to, anticipate

England expects that every man will do his duty.

1805, Nelson, Horatio via Pasco, John, signal sent at the Battle of Trafalgar

I was born and immediately thrown into a society that makes its own rules, standards, and expectations. I am expected to behave. I am expected to deliver. I am expected to live up to the contrived standards of the society.

2015, Sajith Buvi, I Am 7.5 Billion Human, page 49:

You are expected to get the task done by the end of next week.

“You are pregnant?” he asked with shock in his voice. “Yes, Justin, I am expecting a child,”

2011, Eva Fischer-Dixon, The Bestseller:

(continuous aspect only, of a woman or couple) To be pregnant, to consider a baby due.


siren

From Middle English siren, from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn, Sīrēna, from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn). The mammalian sense was first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, in 1671. The aquatic salamander sense was originally introduced by Linnaeus in 1766, for a genus of his reptiles. Doublet of serin.

A member of a genus of aquatic salamanders of the family Sirenidae, commonly used for all species in the family Sirenidae.


pixie

Uncertain; 17thC, originally in the folklore of southwest England; perhaps diminutive of Swedish pysk (“fairy”); perhaps Puck + -sy; see Wikipedia.


mamma

Either sex under special stimulations is capable of manifesting powers ordinarily shown only by the other […] Thus, to take an extreme case, the mammæ of men will, under special excitation, yield milk: there are various cases of gynecomasty on record, and in famines infants whose mothers have died have been thus saved.

1880, Herbert Spencer, The Study of Sociology, page 434:

(anatomy, plural mammae) The milk-secreting organ of female humans and other mammals which includes the mammary gland and the nipple or teat; a breast; an udder.

(meteorology) An accessory cloud like a mammary in appearance, which can form on the underside of most cloud genera.


mamma

Alternative spelling of mama; see further etymology there.

1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
The next day Charles had the child brought back. She asked for her mamma. They told her she was away; that she would bring her back some playthings.


CVS

en-noun

CVS (countable and uncountable, plural CVSs)

chorionic villus sampling
chorionic villus sampling#English

(obstetrics, pathology) Initialism of chorionic villus sampling.


fishwife

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

From Middle English fysshewyfe; equivalent to fish + wife (“(obsolete) woman”) (see also midwife).

(archaic) A woman who sells or works with fish; a female fishmonger.


breastfeed

An instance of feeding milk to a baby from the breasts; a breastfeeding.


gran

(informal, usually affectionate) A grandmother.