heroine
Pluralheroines
Often confused with heroin
Pluralheroines
- 1A woman or girl regarded as a hero, admired for her courage or great achievements.
The firefighter who carried three neighbors out of the burning building was hailed as a heroine.
The town still honors the resistance heroines who hid refugees during the war.
Similarhero
Note
The older meaning, in English since 1587. It came through Latin hērōīna from late Greek hērōḯnē, a feminine formed on hḗrōs, "hero, demigod", so the ending -ine is a suffix that makes feminine nouns. A heroine in this sense is admired for what she has done: courage in a fire, a war, a rescue.
- 2The main female character in a story, play, film, or other work.
The novel's heroine spends most of the story trying to escape an unhappy marriage.
She has sung tragic heroines in most of the great opera houses.
Similarprotagonist, lead
Oppositevillain
Note
The stage and the page took the word over later: only from 1715 has it named the leading woman of a play or story. A heroine in this sense need not be brave at all, merely central to the plot, and she can be hapless or tragic, like the hapless heroine in shabby clothes of Baroness Orczy's "The Affair at the Novelty Theatre".
- 3Having the character of a heroine; heroic.
How otherwise than by a violation of a pledge could he have conquered Limerick, protected as it then was by the heroine bravery of its defenders.
1824, Daniel O’Connell, The Life and Speeches of Daniel O’ConnellHer Brows ſoft Fur was of a paler Dye, / Conformable to that which prettily / Peep’d on her upper Lip, and cowardly / Made shew of Heroine Virility.
1669, [William Wycherley], Hero and LeanderSimilarheroic
Note
A rare adjective, formed partly from the noun and partly from hero plus the adjective ending -ine. It turns up in writing of the 1600s and 1700s, as in Wycherley's mocking "Heroine Virility" of 1669, but present-day English says heroic, and heroine placed before another noun is now read as the noun itself used as a modifier.
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Origins
From Latin hērōīna, from late Ancient Greek ἡρωΐνη (hērōḯnē), the feminine of ἥρως (hḗrōs, "hero, demigod"); in English terms, hero + the feminine suffix -ine. It is found in English from 1587, and the sense "female lead character" from 1715.
Partly from the noun and partly from hero + -ine, a suffix that forms adjectives.