the fair sex
1
9.9
- idiom
- Archaic
:
el sexo débil
- After all, you have an enviable record with the fair sex.
Examples
-
"The fair sex" graced alike with their sunny presence, the banquet hall and saloon, and filled the highest seats.
Academic text (2014) -
He spoke with great admiration about the virtues of the fair sex at the charity event.
-
However, the fair sex may still come, as they say "on the clock."
Blog text (3) -
She also provides additional details from the perspective of the fair sex.
Fiction book (1990) -
I ask why the fair sex has renounced shoes with heels, so suited to make the most of a figure, even a mediocre one, and to protect naturally delicate persons from moisture.
Academic text (2015) -
They resemble, in this respect, the violations of chastity in the fair sex, a virtue of which, for similar reasons, we are excessively jealous.
Academic text (1999) -
For example, in the three volumes of La Mode o Recreo Semanal del Bello Sero Fashion or Recreation Weekly for the Fair Sex, there is no major contribution by a woman.
Academic text (1992) -
Common sorts, of course, might believe that even in these post-decadent times, both the fair sex and our rougher selves might feel free to comport themselves with such common crudity, as though one were addressing a fellow gentleman, but one would have thought you were above such.
Blog text (17) -
"It is generally understood that the practice of cigarette smoking by women is confined to two classes of the fair sex," wrote one tobacco historian at the turn of the century, "One is the lady of wealth and luxury, whose position in society is so surely established that she can, figuratively speaking, blow her dainty clouds into the very faces of her stiff-backed critics, without fear of losing caste."
Academic text (1993) -
In literature, the fair sex is often portrayed as the epitome of grace and beauty.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Adult females considered together as a group
1
9.9
An old polite phrase for women that shows admiration
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'fair' (pleasant/beautiful) directly modifies 'sex' (gender), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it refers to the (beautiful/pleasing) sex — i.e., women collectively. The phrase's chivalrous or archaic connotation may not be fully captured, but the core referential meaning is transparently composed from its parts.
Etymology
The fair sex comes from older polite speech where fair meant 'beautiful' or 'gentle' and sex meant 'gender'. People used it to call women the 'beautiful' or 'delicate' gender, so today it is an old-fashioned, praising way to refer to 'women'.