FEMALE

female, the correlative of "male," the sex which performs the function of conceiving and bearing as opposed to the begetting of young. the word in middle english is _femelle_, adopted from the french from the lat. _femella_, which is a diminutive, and in classical latin used strictly as such, of _femina_, a woman. the present termination in english is due to a connexion in ideas with "male." in various mechanical devices, where two corresponding parts work within the other, the receiving part is often known as the "female," as for example in the "male" and "female screw." the o. fr. _feme_, modern _femme_, occurs in legal phraseology in _feme covert_, a married woman, i.e. one protected or covered by a husband, and in _feme sole_, one not so protected, a widow or spinster (see women and husband and wife).