feminine
1
8.6
- adjective
- /ˈfɛmɪnɪn/
- Literature
:
femenino
- Both authors use a circular, open-ended, evocative, "feminine" style; both emphasize the power of memory, and both reenact and resist racism.
Examples
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But the personification of "reason" in literature is usually feminine, as in the allegorical figure in Johnson's Vision of Theodore.
Academic text (1994) -
In the first pair, the first hemistichs fit perfectly to produce pentameters; in the second pair, there is an extra syllable, producing a so-called "feminine epic caesura"; and, in the third, there is a syllable missing, necessitating a rest.
Academic text (2001) -
Feminine Endings: Music, Gender and Sexuality by Susan McClary.
Academic text (1999) -
One can easily make of the first line of "Quod Tegit Omnia" an iambic trimeter, with substitutions and a hypermetric syllable or feminine ending:
Fiction book (2000) -
The phrase 'with grace' shows a feminine ending, drawing attention to the final unaccented syllable.
-
Each line in her poem features a feminine cadence, concluding softly on a weak beat.
-
This stanza includes a feminine ending, as it finishes with an unaccented syllable that enhances its rhythm.
Surface Forms
Morphology
feminine = female (semi-transparent) = femin + ine
The poetic/musical sense ('ending on an unaccented syllable') is a metaphorical extension from cultural associations of 'feminine' with softness or unstressed endings, so the link is not fully literal.
Etymology
Feminine comes from Latin femina 'woman' and was borrowed to describe a poetic or musical ending that falls on an 'unaccented' beat; a helpful way to remember this is to think of a soft, gentle final beat. So a 'feminine' ending sounds lighter or less strong than a 'masculine' (stressed) ending.