Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also feem) a (young) woman [note synon. use in Kendall, Flowers of Epigrammes (1577): ‘Which are three ills that mischief men [...] The fem, the flud, the fire’].

1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 25 Oct. n.p.: To see so many fine-looking femmes dying old maids, wheen there is such a immense portion of our glorious country to be yet seeded [etc].
1871		O.E. Wood West Point Scrap-Book 337: Fem. –A woman–girl–young lady.
1878		H.O. Flipper Colored Cadet at West Point 53: ‘A fem,’ ‘femme.’ — Any female person.
1897		in Lucky Bag No. 3 107: Drag –To drag a femme to a hop is to escort her [HDAS].
1905		‘West Point Sl.’ in Howitzer (US Milit. Academy) 292–5: Drag —To accompany; as, to drag a femme.
1913		Daily Nebraskan 22 Feb. in DN IV:ii 128: Unless the storm lets up cabs will be necessary in many cases to protect the thin wearing apparel of the ‘fems’.
1919		E. Hemingway letter 30 Apr. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 24: Had me practically married off and entangled with any amount of femmes.
1928		J.P. McEvoy Showgirl iv 52: Eight femmes and a pair of male hoofers take up the burden when she is off.
1935		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 25 May 5/1: BThe stage door of the Harlem Opera House was packed three deep with feems [...] waiting to get Joe Louis’s autograph.
1937		Duckett & Staple ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 20 Feb. 7/2: Who was the red-draped femme who threw her arms about Frankie Bourne.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 67: I was kinda sorry for her an’ I think she is a swell femme.
1937		Duckett & Staple ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 6 Mar. 7/2: [H]e’s got oodles and oodles of fems hearts beating faster.
1944		T. Thursday ‘Twin Lose or Draw’ in Popular Sports Spring 🌐 I never seen him in a barroom or even chasing the femmes.
1946		Billboard 2 Nov. 42/2: Seeing that the featured fem gets speedy service on a hotdog from the chili parlor.
1963		Sacramento Bee (CA) 11 Aug. 26/3: This here meatball [...] was woofing and beating his gums about this fem he had for me.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/5: fem: Female.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 32: Ads for ‘open-minded fems. with whip fantasies’.
1985		Atlanta Constitution (GA) 18 Mar. 4H/1: The trouble with both actresses is that, while they’re undeniably femme, neither is especially fatale.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 86: Obviously having a thing for that femme in particular.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 292/1: femme 1. female.

2. (also femmie) an effeminate homosexual man.

1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 354: They drew themselves closer together as a femme pushed in beside Clarence and tried ‘to make him’.
1934		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana 181: A dozen synonyms for male homosexuality [...] queerie, dickie-licker, femmie, Nancy.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 116: Fem [...] Femmie An effeminate male.
1979		J. Rechy Rushes (1981) 78: Was that the cowboy who turned femme so quickly?
1982		Wisconsin State Jrnl (Madison, WI) 23 Sept. 47/1: ‘Femmes,’ an adolescent slang term for a non-jock type.
1985		K. Vacha Quiet Fire 74: Also [...] the little male prostitute, prick peddler, if you say ‘Hmmm, you’re not what I’m looking for, fella, I like the fems, the ladies,’ they quickly find that maybe they could do that.
1999		Gaymart.com Queer Sl. in the Gay 90s 🌐 Femme – A lesbian or gay man who acts and dresses effeminately.
2001		Guardian 27 Jan. 22: He was an old-school masculine gay — the kind who embraced physical toughness in travel as an affirmation of character. No ‘fem’ he.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 104: Old Tony Z and Mini-Mac. Are they that way? Little lovebirds? Maybe they’ll be bunkies in Lewisburg. Up there in Section Three, the Femme Tier. Bitch City.
2005		E. White My Lives 282: Butch-femme role-playing might have approximated traditional male-female interactions.

3. a feminine lesbian.

1947		in Katz Gay/Lesbian Almanac (1983) 625: Femme [is] common in gay parlance.
1958		H. Greenwald Call Girl 118: Among female homosexuals the ‘femme’ acts the role of a woman.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 62: The bulldykes and the femmes is called the lower and the higher class [...] The wife is the lower class.
1968		J. Colebrook Cross of Lassitude 266: ‘You gotta be a Butch,’ Stan advises Frankie, ‘a stone Butch.’ ‘I’m no tackhead,’ Frankie evades. ‘You’re no Fem either,’ Stan compliments.
1988		P. Califia Macho Sluts 29: I don’t consider myself a femme – I just turn on to aggressive and strong women.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 59: Fem An individual who takes on the female role in a homosexual relationship.
1999		Indep. Mag. 30 Oct. 39: Did I perhaps look ‘butch’ in my black jacket and trousers to Lynda’s ‘femme’ in Miyake?
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 242: Talk to Greta, the barkeep. She’ll set you up with two femmes for fifty.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 292/1: femme [...] 2 a feminine lesbian.
2018		Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 30 Aug. T44/4: Instead of male or female [are] categories [...] ‘stone butch,’ ‘femme daddy’.

4. (Aus.) a female impersonator, a ‘drag queen’.

1966		Baker Aus. Sl. (2 edn) 213: fem, a male transvestite.
1986		M. Pate Entertaining War 72: The femmes of the show were always a great success with such audiences [Simes:DLSS].
1991		G. Wotherspoon City of Plain 90: During World War II many of the entertainment troupes that were established to travel around to lighten the lives of the soldiers had shows which required ‘femmes’ (a sanitised name for ‘drag queens’). Quite clearly in many cases those who became the ‘femmes’ in these wartime shows were those who had previous experience in ‘throwing on a frock’ [Simes:DLSS].

5. the ‘female’ partner of a couple whether hetero- or homosexual.

1970		J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1/2 57: femme, fem n Passive member, male or female, of a homosexual relationship.
1982		Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 126: They object to […] Butch, French anything, Femme, Stud, Submissive, Dominant, Hermaphrodite, and Soixante-neuf- which is 69, in case you didn’t know; 68 is ‘you suck me and I’ll owe you one’.
1995		R. Campbell Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 210: Straight or gay, it’s usually the femme who plays the tune and the men who dance to it.