英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

felon (n.)[felon 词源字典]: c. 1300, "one who deceives or commits treason; one who is wicked or evil; evil-doer," used of Lucifer and Herod, from Old French felon "evil-doer, scoundrel, traitor, rebel, oath-breaker, the Devil" (9c.), from Medieval Latin fellonem (nominative fello) "evil-doer," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Frankish *fillo, *filljo "person who whips or beats, scourger" (source of Old High German fillen "to whip"); or from Latin fel "gall, poison," on the notion of "one full of bitterness." Celtic origins also have been proposed.

Another theory (advanced by Professor R. Atkinson of Dublin) traces it to Latin fellare "to suck" (see fecund), which had an obscene secondary meaning in classical Latin (well-known to readers of Martial and Catullus), which would make a felon etymologically a "cock-sucker." OED inclines toward the "gall" explanation, but finds Atkinson's "most plausible" of the others.

Also by c. 1300 in English in a general legal sense "criminal; one who has committed a felony," however that was defined. Century Dictionary notes, "the term is not applicable after legal punishment has been completed." In Middle English it also was an adjective, "traitorous, wicked, malignant." Australian official James Mudie (1837), coined felonry "as the appellative of an order or class of persons in New South Wales,--an order which happily exists in no other country in the world."[felon etymology, felon origin, 英语词源]
felonious (adj.): mid-15c., "wicked, criminal" (implied in feloniously), from felony + -ous. Replaced felonous (mid-14c.) by c. 1600. Felonly (c. 1300) was another variation.
felony (n.): c. 1300, "treachery, betrayal; deceit; villainy, wickedness, sin, crime; violent temper, wrath; ruthlessness; evil intention," from Old French felonie (12c.) "wickedness, evil, treachery, perfidy, crime, cruelty, sin," from Gallo-Roman *fellonia, from fellonem "evil-doer" (see felon).

As a class of crime in common law, also from c. 1300, from Anglo-French. The exact definition changed over time and place, and even the distinction from misdemeanor or trespass is not always observed. In old use often a crime involving forfeiture of lands, goods, or a fee or a crime punishable by death. Variously used in the U.S.; often the sense is "crime punishable by death or imprisonment in a state penitentiary."
felsic (adj.): 1912, from feldspar + silica + -ic.
felt (n.): unwoven fabric matted together by rolling or beating while wet, Old English felt "felt," from West Germanic *feltaz "something beaten, compressed wool" (cognates: Old Saxon filt, Middle Dutch vilt, Old High German filz, German Filz, Danish filt), from Proto-Germanic *felt- "to beat," from PIE *pel- (6) "to thrust, strike, drive" (source also of Old Church Slavonic plŭstĭ), with a sense of "beating" (see pulse (n.1)). Compare filter (n.). Felt-tipped pen (or -tip) is from 1953.
felt (v.1): "to make into felt," early 14c. (implied in felted); see felt (n.).
felt (v.2): past tense and past participle of feel (v.).
fem (n.): slang for "woman," by 1936, from female.
female (n.): early 14c., from Old French femelle "woman, female" (12c.), from Medieval Latin femella "a female," from Latin femella "young female, girl," diminutive of femina "woman" (see feminine).
WHEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

[Kipling]
Sense extended in Vulgar Latin from young humans to female of other animals, then to females generally. Compare Latin masculus, also a diminutive (see masculine). Spelling altered late 14c. in erroneous imitation of male. In modern use usually as an adjective (early 14c.). Reference to implements with sockets and corresponding parts is from 1660s.
femaleness (n.): "quality of being female," 1886, from female + -ness. From 1892 as "qualities appropriate to a female."
femalist (n.): "a courter of women, a gallant," 1610s, from female + -ist.
feme covert (n.): "married woman" (legalese), c. 1600, French, from Old French feme coverte, second element fem. of covert "covered" (see covert). Contrasted to feme sole.
feminine (adj.): mid-14c., "of the female sex," from Old French femenin (12c.) "feminine, female; with feminine qualities, effeminate," from Latin femininus "feminine" (in the grammatical sense at first), from femina "woman, female," literally "she who suckles," from root of felare "to suck, suckle" (see fecund). Usual modern sense of "woman-like, proper to or characteristic of women" is recorded from mid-15c. Related: Femininely.

The interplay of meanings now represented roughly in female "characteristic of the sex that bears children," feminine "having qualities considered appropriate to a woman," and effeminate "having female qualities in a bad sense, unmanly," and the attempt to keep them clear of each other, has led to many coinages. Among nouns, in addition to feminity "womanishness," femininity, femaleness, feminineness (1810, "female qualities"), there is feminitude (1878); feminility "womanliness" (1824); feminie "womankind" (late 14c.); femality (17c., "effeminacy;" 1754 "female nature"); feminacy "female nature" (1829); feminicity "quality or condition of being a woman" (1843). Also feminality (1640s, "quality or state of being female"), from rare adjective feminal "female, belonging to a woman" (late 14c.), from Old French feminal. And femineity "quality or state of being feminine," also "effeminate; womanly," from Latin femineus "of a woman, pertaining to a woman."
femininity (n.): late 14c., "feminine quality, womanliness, female nature," femynynytee, from feminine + -ity. From 1832 as "women collectively;" from 1853 as "character or state of being state of being a woman."
feminism (n.): 1851, "qualities of females;" 1895, "advocacy of women's rights;" from French féminisme (1837); see feminine + -ism. Also, in biology, "development of female secondary sexual characteristics in a male" (1875).
feminist (n.): 1892, from French féministe (1872); also see feminism. As an adjective by 1894. Womanist sometimes was tried as a native alternative. Femalist already had been taken as "courter of woman, a gallant" (1610s).
feminity (n.): "quality or state of being feminine," late 14c., from Old French feminité, from Latin femina "woman, a female" (see feminine). From early 15c. as "women collectively."
feminization (n.): 1844, noun of action from feminize.
feminize (v.): 1650s, "make feminine or womanish," from Latin femina "woman, a female" (see feminine) + -ize. Related: Feminized; feminizing. Femalize (1670s, intransitive, 1709, transitive) and femininize (1868) are more rare.
femme (n.): French, literally "woman," from Old French feme, from Latin femina "woman, a female" (see feminine). Slang for "young woman" from 1928; meaning "passive and more feminine partner in a lesbian couple" attested by 1961.