femalia

English

Etymology

Principal sense (female genitalia) introduced in the novel Vox by Nicholson Baker (1992); popularized as the title of the book Femalia, edited by Joani Blank (1993). Likely coined by Baker as a portmanteau of female and genitalia. Rare uses in other senses attested before 1992. The most general sense (anything pertaining to females or femaleness) may be derived by analogy to regalia; this sense, and this analogy, may also influence all the other, more specific senses.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌfiːˈmeɪli.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌfəˈmeɪli.ə/

Noun

femalia

1. Female genitalia.
   • 1992, Nicholson Baker (1992), Vox: a novel (New York: Random House), →ISBN, pages 143–144 (ellipsis in the original):

     so he started playing the water over my legs and then directly on my . . . femalia, and I held my lips open so that he could see my inner wishbone

   • 1993, Joani Blank (ed., 1993), Femalia (1st ed.), photographs by Tee A. Corinne, Michael Perry, Jill Posener, and Michael A. Rosen (San Francisco: Down There Press), →ISBN, front cover (book title: the book is a collection of full-color photographs of female genitalia):

     femalia

   • 1995, Henry Allen (14 September 1995), "Intellectual passions", Washington Post (retrieved 2017-08-26; archived from the original 2017-08-26):

     Perhaps because the editors are women, there tends to be less comparable detailing of female anatomy. Presumably there's no taboo against it after so many years of feminist celebration of the flower-petal beauties of femalia, the paintings of Judy Chicago et al.

   • 1997, Veronica Vera (1997), Miss Vera's finishing school for boys who want to be girls (1st ed.; New York: Doubleday), →ISBN, page 16:

     One thousand women saw photos of the femalia of fifteen workshop participants, up close and personal

   • 2004, Catherine Blackledge (2004), The story of V: a natural history of female sexuality (New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 57 (chapter title):

     Femalia

2. Anything pertaining to females or femaleness.
   • 1976, Dadri (15 February 1976), "A tale of our times", Yojana (New Delhi), 20(2):23–24 (col. 1), page 24, column 1 (apparent jocular use as the title of a fictional women's magazine):

     And the very next page of ‘Femalia’ offered her a more practical answer. Food fads, swore the copy, this time built around a broad sporting the narrowest of bras, didn’t help any. What you needed was a spot reducer, guaranteed to milk you clean of all your unwanted fat.

3. A supposed language or dialect spoken and understood by women.
   • 1958, Robert S. Casey (1958), Oral communication of technical information (New York: Reinhold), →OCLC, page 18:

     We of the male persuasion can usually understand Femalia, the native tongue of my favorite sex

4. Obsession with women.
   • 1932, "That fourth floor", The College Cord (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Waterloo College), 7(12):3–4 (col. 2), 26 November 1932, page 3 (col. 2):

     Yes sir! Here it is! The dope on the latest epidemic of femalia (or femania or what you will) that has swept this section of the building

References

• femalia at Google Ngram Viewer