unmarried woman, whose debts, contracted before marriage, become those of her husband after it.

A femme-sole merchant, is where a woman, in London, uses a trade alone, without her husband; on which account she shall be charged without him.

Feminine, in grammar, one of the genders of nouns. See Gender.

The feminine gender is that which denotes the noun or name to belong to a female. In the Latin, the feminine gender is formed of the masculine, by altering its termination; particularly by changing us into a. Thus, of the masculine bonus equus, "a good horse," is formed the feminine bona equa, "a good mare;" so, of parvus homo, "a little man," is formed parva femina, "a little woman," &c.

In French, the feminine gender is expressed, not by a different termination, but by a different article; thus, le is joined to a male, and la to a female.

In English, we are generally more strict, and express the difference of sex, not by different terminations, nor by different particles, but different words; as boar and sow, boy and girl, brother and sister, &c. — though sometimes the feminine is formed by varying the termination of the male into ess; as in abbot, abbess, &c.

Femur, os femoris, in anatomy. See there, n° 58.