female [ME] The spelling of female changed in the Middle Ages to match male, which is a quite different word. Female came via Old French femelle from Latin femella, which was a diminutive form of femina ‘woman’ source also of feminine [LME], whereas male [LME] is based on Latin masculus, from mas ‘a male person’. See also chauvinism, macho. The saying the female of the species is more deadly than the male comes originally from the 1911 poem ‘The Female of the Species’ by Rudyard Kipling. Whether the animal in question is a cobra, a she-bear, or a woman, the warning of where the greatest danger lies is the same, ‘For the female of the species is more deadly than the male’.