femme fatale

femme fatale

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French femme fatale (literally “deadly woman”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɛm fəˈtæl/

  Audio (US)

  (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɛm fəˈtɑːl/

  Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

femme fatale (plural femmes fatales or femme fatales)

1. An attractive and seductive but ultimately dangerous woman.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vamp

   Antonym: ingenue

   Coordinate terms: fille fatale, homme fatal

   • 1967, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Femme Fatale”, in The Velvet Underground & Nico, performed by The Velvet Underground:

     Cause everybody knows (She's a femme fatale) / The things she does to please (She's a femme fatale)

Derived terms

• femme fatale firefly

Translations

seductive and dangerous woman

Arabic: طَاغِيَة جَمَال‎ f (ṭāḡiya(t) jamāl) Chinese: Mandarin: 蛇蠍美人／蛇蝎美人 (shéxiē měirén), 妖姬 (yāojī), 女妖精 (nǚyāojing), 紅顏禍水／红颜祸水 (hóngyán huòshuǐ) Danish: femme fatale c Esperanto: fatala virino Finnish: viettelijätär French: femme fatale (fr) f German: Femme fatale f, verhängnisvolle Frau f Greek: φαμ φατάλ (el) f (fam fatál) Hungarian: végzet asszonya Italian: femme fatale f, donna fatale f Japanese: ファム・ファタール (famu fatāru), 妖女 (ようじょ, yōjo), 妖婦 (ja) (ようふ, yōfu), 傾城傾国 (けいせいけいこく, keisei keikoku) Korean: 팜 파탈 (pam patal), 요부(妖婦) (yobu) Polish: femme fatale (pl) f, kobieta fatalna f Portuguese: femme fatale (pt) f Russian: рокова́я же́нщина f (rokovája žénščina), фам-фата́ль f (fam-fatálʹ) Scottish Gaelic: bean bhàsail f Spanish: mujer fatal f Swedish: femme fatale (sv) c

Further reading

• femme fatale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Danish

Etymology

From French femme fatale.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /famfatal/, [fɑmfaˈtˢalː] or IPA^(key): /fam fatal/, [fɑm faˈtˢalː]

Noun

femme fatale c (plural indefinite femmes fatales)

1. femme fatale

Further reading

• “femme fatale” in Den Danske Ordbog
• femme fatale on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

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French

Etymology

femme +‎ fatale

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fam fa.tal/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

femme fatale f (plural femmes fatales)

1. femme fatale

Descendants

• → Danish: femme fatale
• → English: femme fatale
• → Polish: femme fatale

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Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French femme fatale.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fam faˈtal/
• Rhymes: -atal

Noun

femme fatale f (indeclinable)

1. (idiomatic, narratology) femme fatale (attractive and seductive but ultimately dangerous woman)

   Synonym: kobieta fatalna

Further reading

• femme fatale in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• femme fatale in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French femme fatale.

Noun

femme fatale f (plural femmes fatales)

1. (narratology) femme fatale (seductive and dangerous woman)