muliebrity

plural muliebrities · alternative muliebritie

1. countableliteraryuncountableThe state or quality of being a woman; the features of a woman's nature; femininity, womanhood.

   She had not married, I suppose because her standards were high, and men are cowards and with an instinctive appetite for muliebrity.

   1911, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Margaret in London”, in The New Machiavelli, London: John Lane; The Bodley Head […], →OCLC, book the second (Margaret), § 2, page 207

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   The Ladies of Rhodes hearing that you have loſt, / A capitoll part of your Lady ware, / Haue made their petition to Cupid, / To plague you aboue all other, / As one preiuditiall to their muliebritie.

   1592?, attributed to Thomas Kyd, The Tragedye of Solyman and Perseda. […], Printed by Edward Allde for Edward White, […], →OCLC, signature G2, verso; republished as The Tragedie of Soliman and Perseda. […], London: Printed by Edward Allde, for Edward White, […], 1599, →OCLC, Act I

   [I]n the devising, hammering, forging and composing of the Woman, she hath had a much tenderer regard, and by a great deal more respectful heed to the delightful Consortship, and sociable Delectation of the Man, than to the Perfection and Accomplishment of the individual Womanishness, or Muliebrity.

   1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “How Rondibilis Declareth Cuckoldry to be Naturally One of the Appendances of Marriage”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume I, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 460

   The second of the ravishing voices I have heard was, as I have said, that of another German woman. […] it had so much woman in it,—muliebrity, as well as femineity; […]

   1857–1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], chapter IX, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, published 1858, →OCLC, page 251

   [T]his tall, handsome, gentlemanly-looking woman, who, however, in spite of her broad shoulders and narrow hips possessed a refined muliebrity superior to mere womanliness of outline, […]

   1888, Bret Harte, “[A Phyllis of the Sierras] chapter V”, in A Phyllis of the Sierras and A Drift from Redwood Camp, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 152

   Civilisation has achieved a very elaborate woman, but the elaboration is unimportant from the point of view of science. It is decorative; the structure endures; the heart of modern woman is the heart of her savage ancestress dressed and adorned and furnished. This permanence of muliebrity serves to indicate the requirements of natural law. Woman may not depart from it to any considerable extent without impairing her position and nullifying her functions.

   1904 September, H. B. Marriott-Watson [i.e., H[enry] B[rereton] Marriott Watson], “The American Woman: An Analysis”, in James Knowles, editor, The Nineteenth Century and After: A Monthly Review, volume LVI, number CCCXXXI, London: Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd., printers […], →OCLC, page 435

   Synonyms: femaleness, femineity, womanishness, womanliness, womanness · Antonyms: masculinity, manhood, manliness, mannishness, virility

2. countableliteraryuncountableThe state of attainment of womanhood following maidenhood.

   Janie's story of personal growth may be charted as one that travels from mules to muliebrity.

   1997 spring, Julie A. Haurykiewicz, “From Mules to Muliebrity: Speech and Silence in Their Eyes Were Watching God”, in Southern Literary Journal, volume 29, number 2, Chapel Hill, N.C.: Department of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 45

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   [page 354] If a huſband be Inneen, [impotent,] it is requiſite that the Kâzee appoint the term of one year from the period of litigation, within which if the accuſed have carnal connexion with his wife it is well; but if not, the Kâzee muſt pronounce a ſeparation, provided ſuch be the deſire of the wife, […] [pages 355–356] Where ſhe was married as a virgin, ſhe is to be examined by ſome of her own ſex, and if they declare her to be ſtill a virgin, the term of a year is to be appointed, as above, becauſe the huſband's falſehood is then evident; but if they declare her muliebrity [footnote: Meaning womanhood, as opposed to virginity.], the Kâzee is in that caſe to require the huſband to make oath, which if he do, her right to ſeparation is defeated; […]

   1791, [Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani], “Of Impotence”, in Charles Hamilton, transl., The Hedaya, or Guide; a Commentary on the Mussulman Laws: […], volume I, London: Printed by T[homas] Bensley, →OCLC, pages 354–356

3. countableuncountablemedicineThe state of puberty in a female.