English

Noun

femme ‎(plural femmes)

1. (slang, LGBT, countable) A feminine lesbian, especially one who is attracted to masculine (butch) lesbians.
2. (archaic, rare) A woman, a wife, particularly in heraldry.
   • 1885, Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 18:

     Then I turned to him and said, "O my lord, I have that to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me; and this it is that, when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as thy handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and I will be femme to thee."

Antonyms

• (LGBT): butch

French

Etymology

From Middle French femme, from Old French fame, femme, feme, from Latin femina, from Proto-Italic *fēmanā, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥n-eh₂ ‎(“who sucks”), derivation of the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- ‎(“to suck, suckle”). Various spellings such as feme, fame and fenme were used in Old French.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fam/
• Rhymes: -am

Noun

femme f ‎(plural femmes)

1. woman
   • 1868, Comte de Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror

     Ta grandeur morale, image de l’infini, est immense comme la réflexion du philosophe, comme l’amour de la femme, comme la beauté divine de l’oiseau, comme les méditations du poète. Tu es plus beau que la nuit. Réponds-moi, océan, veux-tu être mon frère ?

     Your moral grandeur, image of infinity, is as vast as the philosopher's reflections, as woman's love, as the divine beauty of the bird, as the meditations of the poet. You are more beautiful than the night. Answer me, ocean, will you be my brother ?

2. wife
   • 1880, Émile Zola, Nana

     Ce fut le soir du mariage à l'église que le comte Muffat se présenta dans la chambre de sa femme, où il n'était pas entré depuis deux ans.

     It was on the night of the wedding at the church that Count Muffat appeared in his wife's bedroom, which he had not entered for two years past.

Synonyms

• épouse (cognate to spouse)

Antonyms

• (female): homme
• (wife): mari
• (wife): époux (cognate to spouse)

Related terms

• femelle
• féminin
• femmelette

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French fame, femme, feme, from Latin femina, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥n-eh₂ ‎(“who sucks”), derivation of the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- ‎(“to suck, suckle”). Various spellings such as feme, fame and fenme were used in Old French.

Noun

femme f (plural femmes)

1. wife
2. woman (female adult human being)

Synonyms

• (woman): dame

Descendants

• French: femme

Norman

Alternative forms

• fâme, faume, faumme (Guernsey)
• foume (continental Normandy)
• fenme (Cotentin)

Etymology

From Old French femme, feme, fame, fenme, from Latin fēmina, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-m̥n-eh₂ ‎(“who sucks”), derivation of the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- ‎(“to suck, suckle”).

Noun

femme f ‎(plural femmes)

1. (Jersey, France) wife
2. (Jersey, France) woman

Old French

Noun

femme f ‎(oblique plural femmes, nominative singular femme, nominative plural femmes)

1. Alternative form of fame