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 nouns 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, Thus, of the masculine *bonus equus*, "a good horse," is formed the feminine *bona equa*, "a good mare;" so, of *parens 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.