femalefemale

Female comes from Middle English female, altered (after male) from femele, from Old French femele, from Latin fēmella, diminutive of fēmina ‘woman’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁(y)-¹‘to suckle’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-m̥h₁n-éh₂¹reconstructed
3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*θēmanā¹reconstructed
4. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fēmanā¹reconstructed
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfēmina¹‘woman’
6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfēmella¹‘a young woman’
7. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500fēmella¹‘a female’
8. Old Frenchc. 842–1400femele¹
9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500femele¹
10. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500female¹
11. Englishearliest quotation 1896female¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English female
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1896, John Brown, Twenty-five Years a Parson in the Wild West: “It would be years sometimes ere he saw the…”.