FEMALE, the correlative of male, the sex which performs the function of conceiving and bearing as opposed to the beget ting of young. The word in Middle English is femelle, adopted from the French from the Lat. fernella, diminutive of femina, a woman. The present termination is due to a connection in ideas with "male." In various mechanical devices 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 Pine covert, a married woman, i.e., one protected or covered by a husband, and in feme sole, a widow or spinster. (See WOMEN and HUSBAND AND WIFE.)