masculinity

From French masculinité, from Old French, equivalent to masculine +‎ -ity. Earlier in same sense was masculineness.

• (GenAm) IPA^(key): /ˌmæskjəˈlɪnɪti/

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masculinity (usually uncountable, plural masculinities)

1. The degree or property of being masculine or manly; manliness.

   Over time, society's ideas of masculinity has greatly broadened.

   • 1971, American Journal of Psychotherapy, volume 25, page 657:

     Of the six homosexual patients, three men finally overcame the underlying vaginaphobia, increased their heterosexual activities, and enhanced their masculinity.

   • 2013, Elisabetta Girelli, Montgomery Clift, Queer Star, page 33:

     Steven Cohan highlights the suggestive qualities of Red River's dominant narrative, the opposition between the radically different masculinities Clift and Wayne represent: "the highly charged context between the soft boy and the hard man in Red River dramatizes such a shift in the mainstream culture's demands upon masculinity".

• feminility
• feminineness
• womanlikeness

• male
• masculine
• masculinize
• masculinization