NODE / 0814reconstructedProto-Indo-European
*dhē-mnā-
TRANSLITERATION *dhē-mnā-
woman or nursing female formation
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European suffixed reduced formation
- SENSE
- suckle woman formation
- FAMILY
- Indo-European
- CANONICAL KEY
- node:6:dhe-mna:reconstructed:sense:suckle-woman-formation
Published morphological analysis; not an attested social definition of women.
*This form is reconstructed by comparison. It is not directly attested in this exact written form.
01ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
02DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
DESCENDANTderivationestablished
Latin · Latin · woman femalefēmina
woman; female
- SOUND
- Latin fēmina is analyzed from the suffixed reduced formation *dhē-mnā-.
- MEANING
- The reconstructed formation connects a woman noun to the suckle root without defining modern women by that history.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Comparative morphology, not a dated social definition.
- SCHOLAR
- Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established
03TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE
EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE
This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.
- UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
- 5
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 5
- DEEPEST PATH
- 5
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 1
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
STEP 01derivationestablished
- SOUND
- Latin fēmina is analyzed from the suffixed reduced formation *dhē-mnā-.
- MEANING
- The reconstructed formation connects a woman noun to the suckle root without defining modern women by that history.
Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors1 CITATIONEDGE 818 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 021 EDGE
STEP 02diminutive derivationestablished
- SOUND
- Latin fēmella is a diminutive of fēmina.
- MEANING
- A young-female formation continues the broader woman or female noun.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 817 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 031 EDGE
STEP 03inheritanceestablished
- SOUND
- Old French femele continues Latin fēmella.
- MEANING
- The female noun continues through Romance.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors1 CITATIONEDGE 816 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 041 EDGE
STEP 04borrowingestablished
- SOUND
- Middle English femelle continues Old French femele or femelle.
- MEANING
- The female noun crosses from French into English.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 815 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 051 EDGE
STEP 05analogical reshapingestablished
- SOUND
- Earlier femelle or femel was respelled female under the influence of male.
- MEANING
- The sex-class meaning continues while surface spelling creates a misleading resemblance.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 814 ↗ “Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.
04RECORDED EVIDENCE
ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.That is expected for a reconstructed form: the node is inferred from comparison, not quoted from a surviving occurrence.
05EDITORIAL REUSE
WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE