Muliebrity Poem by gershon hepner

A man who once lived in the Hebrides
made overtures to all celebrities.
One told him: “Go gentle, son.
Since you aren’t Mendelssohn,
you won’t understand my muliebritease.”

Inspired by my discovery of the word muliebrity:
Muliebrity is the quality of being a woman. This word is sometimes used as a counterpart to virility, in an analogy with the counterparts of 'feminine' and 'masculine'. The word is derived from Latin muliebritas ('womanhood') and mulier ('woman') . The Oxford English Dictionary (1st edition) noted it was 'rare'.
Muliebrity (miuliˌ e•brǐ ti) . rare. [ad. L. muliebrit-ā s, f. muliebris: see MULIEBRAL.] Womanhood; the characteristics or qualities of a woman.
• 1592 [? KYD] Soliman & Pers. IV. ii. The Ladies of Rhodes haue made their petition to Cupid to plague you aboue all..other, as one preiuditiall to their muliebritie.
• c 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais III. xxxii.270 Individual Womanishness or Muliebrity.
• 1858 O. W. HOLMES Aut. Breakf.-t. ix. The second of the ravishing voices..had so much woman in it, — muliebrity, as well as femineity.
The American Heritage Dictionary adds that muliebrity is the 'state of womanhood (in contrast with maidenhood) .'[1] In this sense, muliebrity is a state achieved by successful relationship with a man.
• He exercised his virility and she received her muliebrity.
Some thesauruses supply muliebrity among other approximate synonyms for womanhood and femininity. Vanderbilt University uses it in a slightly different way, offering a Muliebrity Award to recognize the achievements of women. In his book Mother Tongue (1990) , author Bill Bryson describes it as meaning 'the state of being a woman'.
The word came into a wider circulation[citation needed] after the book of Joni Arredia. It is found in Al Purdy's poem Uncle Fred on Côte des Neiges in Poems for All the Annettes (Toronto,1962) . Muliebrity is also the name of a poem, written by Sujata Bhatt.

3/24/09