femme fatale

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing 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
• femme fatale lightning bug

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 (ja) (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

See also

• succubus

Further reading

• femme fatale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Danish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing 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

French

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

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

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French femme fatale.

Noun

femme fatale f (plural femmes fatales)

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