womanish

comparative more womanish · superlative most womanish · alternative obsolete womannish

1. derogatoryoftenCharacteristic of a woman; effeminate, feminine.First known use 14th c.

   Perhaps he did too, for he turned scarlet and turned his face away to the wall, with a womanish gesture of shyness.

   1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 753

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   […] Romans novv / Haue Thevves, and Limbes, like to their Anceſtors; / But vvoe the vvhile, our Fathers mindes are dead, / And vve are gouern'd vvith our Mothers ſpirits, / Our yoake, and ſufferance, ſhevv vs VVomaniſh.

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 113, column 1

   The Fence was a proper Park paling in excellent condition; with clusters of fine Elms, or rows of old Thorns following its line almost every where.—Almost must be stipulated—for there were vacant spaces & through one of these, Charlotte as soon as they entered the Enclosure, caught a glimpse over the pales of something White & Womanish in the field on the other side;—it was a something which immediately brought Miss B. into her head—& stepping to the pales, she saw indeed—& very decidedly, in spite of the Mist; Miss B—seated, not far before her, at the foot of the bank which sloped down from the outside of the Paling & which a narrow Path seemed to skirt along;—Miss Brereton seated, apparently very composedly—& Sir E. D. by her side.

   Sanditon

   1817 (date written), Jane Austen, chapter 12, in R[aymond] W[ilson] Chambers, editor, Fragment of a Novel Written by Jane Austen, January–March 1817 […] [Sanditon], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1925, →OCLC, pages 167–168

   I don't very much wonder at her fright. We have met before; but I owe her no grudge, and we must not wait for womanish fear.

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 259

   Friends are a comfort in misfortune, but one should not make them unhappy by seeking their sympathy, as is done by women and womanish men.

   1946, Bertrand Russell, “Aristotle’s Ethics”, in History of Western Philosophy […], London: George Allen and Unwin, →OCLC, book 1 (Ancient Philosophy), part 2 (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle), page 202

2. Carried out by or pertaining to a woman.First known use 14th c.

   And gan recomfort her in her rude vvyſe, / VVith vvomaniſh compaſſion of her plaint, / VViping the teares from her ſuffuſed eyes, […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 496

present singular third person womanishes · participle present womanishing · participle past womanished · past womanished · alternative obsolete womannish

1. obsoleterareTo make womanish.

   He [Stubbes] complains of music “being used in public assemblies and private conventicles as a directory to filthy dancing;” and that “through the sweet harmony and smooth melody thereof, it estrangeth the mind, stirreth up lust, womanisheth the mind, and ravisheth the heart.”

   [1857], W[illiam] Chappell, “Puritanism, in Its Effects upon Music and Its Accessories”, in Popular Music of the Olden Time; a Collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of England. […], volume II, London: Cramer, Beale, & Chappell, […], page 406

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   Then the Lord Gaspar: “I believe music,” quoth he, “together with many other vanities, is meet for women, and peradventure for some also that have the likeness of men, but not for them that be men indeed, who ought not with such delicacies to womanish their minds and bring themselves in that sort to dread death.”

   1907, “Book First”, in Rossiter Johnson, Dora Knowlton Ranous, editors, The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) (The Literature of Italy, 1265–1907), [New York, N.Y.]: The National Alumni, →OCLC, page 75

   [T]his effeminate love of a Woman, dothe ſo womaniſh a man, that, yf yow yeelde to yt, yt will not onely make yow a famous Amazon but a Launder, a Diſtaff ſpinner, or whatſoever other vyle occupacyon theyre Idle heades can Imagyn, and theyre weyke handes ꝑforme [performe]: […]

   The Old Arcadia

   Albert Feuillerat, editor (1926), “The First Book”, in The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia: Being the Original Version […] (Cambridge English Classics; The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; IV), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page 17

   Synonyms: effeminate, femalize, femininize, feminize, woman, womanize