Farmerette or Farmette

Imen’s post on changing the name of her blog to match with her column and her twitter username got me thinking. ?She is known as ‘Modern Farmette’. ?Is the correct term ‘farmerette’ or ‘farmette’ I wondered, especially as I am calling myself a farmerette. Does it matter? Are they seen as one and the same thing?

I consulted the Oxford English Dictionary online and neither are in use there (yet I did hear recently that the OED is behind others in adding new words/terms).

I then checked both on the google keyword analysis tool and interestingly while the number of searches for both are on a par for Ireland (less than 20 per month), farmette is a much higher search term than farmerette for global searches – 4,400 compared to a measly 320!

When I focused on the States, some keywords that were thrown up were interesting. For example, there were 1,900 for the keyphrase ‘farmettes for sale’!! and on googling that term myself, it seems to refer to farms rather than women (thank goodness for that!) so I wonder does it refer to smaller farms, more feminine farms??

Focusing on the UK, farmette did slightly better than farmerette at 46:10.

Interesting isn’t it or do I need to get out more? Thoughts anyone?

24 thoughts on “Farmerette or Farmette

  • Donna OShaughnessy

    Lorna, in the US a Farmette is indeed a small farm as in not a real farm, one with more pets than livestock, ususally less than 5 acres. Now the term Farmerette I have never heard but have decided to steal from you, maybe even expanding it to Farmeretta as in “I am Queen Farmeretta, do as I say.” What do you think?

    Reply
    • Lorna

      HI Donna, I’d never heard of farmette before Imen began using it, sounds like it is what we (and the UK) call a smallholding – esp for those who are living the ‘good life’ with a few animals etc.
      Farmeretta sounds very exotic, even Spanish. I wonder will our new words catch on and eventually end up in the dictionary 🙂

      Reply
  • Elaine Hall

    Farmerette or Farmette , What I think when I see them both is a farmette is a Woman who lives on a farm and is maybe just learning or who doesn’t have as full a role in the day to day work on the farm like milking , feeding , bedding , fencing and all the other bits . Farmerette I would feel is a Woman who farms the farm in all the aspects of the day to day running of the yard even if it is shared with a husband / partner .

    Reply
    • Lorna

      Interesting difference there in your interpretation of both terms, Elaine, many thanks for your comment. I have to admit I’m more of a farmette than a farmerette then!;) Once the cows start calving, I’ll be bucket feeding calves every morning (my workout!) but for most of the rest of the year, I go out when needed rather than on a daily basis. I’m actually really allergic to loads of stuff so things like straw bedding drive my eczema mad. Some day I must do a post on how the milking of cows changed with the genders over the years.

      Reply
      • Elaine Hall

        We will have the calves now soon as well that is a workout trying to keep them all sucking in the right places till they get used to it and carrying buckets of milk around I always manage to get some down my wellies :). That must be hard to keep under control when you live on a farm , my nephew is allergic to horses and he is so bad he can’t travel in my jeep without his eyes getting sore and sneezing. The one thing that is the same for a farmette or a farmerette is that the farm wouldn’t run the same with out us on it whether it’s feeding cattle or making dinner we make the whole thing run smoother :).

        Reply
        • Lorna

          I had a pony years ago and we had to sell her. We wouldn’t be able to have any pets in the house either. I can’t feed the baby calves as all their slobbering drives my skin mad, even if I wear gloves but I’m fine once they’re trained to drink.

          Reply
  • imen

    Hi Lorna,
    I believe that a farmette, in the truest sense of the word, can mean a small farm. But, I personally like think of a farmette as a miniature farmer or someone just learning the ropes like myself….. The good news is that soon, given our restoration of the tiny thatched farm, it will all fall together =)
    All Best, Imen x

    Reply
    • Lorna

      That’s a nice description Imen, I had thought of a farmette as a female farmer rather than a miniature or beginner farmer. As I’ve been born and raised on a farm and am supposed to know the ropes, I’d better stick with farmerette then 😉

      All a bit of fun really, L xx

      Reply
  • maireadkelly

    Nerd alert binged here too. Like Valerie, I’ve often heard my Mum and her family add ‘een’ to the end of a word to denote small, boyeen, girleen, etc.

    I understand farmette to mean small farm, or a young girl farmer, not a fully grown woman farmer. I wouldn’t differeniate between gender, a farmer is a person who owns and tends to a farm, male or female.

    Since it is a relatively new word I’m not surprised that either isn’t in the dictionary yet. If I wanted to make the gender difference then I would use the term farmerette.

    Reply
  • ayearinredwood

    Interesting… and amazing how the words can be used so differently… around here ‘een’ is used to… girleen is a very common term!

    But I do think you need to get out more too! 🙂

    Margaret

    Reply
    • Lorna

      Any excuse for a night out Margaret 🙂 we really should have a ‘farmerette/farmette blog get together’. Interestingly many of the farmette blogs are foodie blogs here whereas the American farmette/farmerette blogs are more farming based.

      Reply
  • Marie Ennis-O'Connor (@JBBC)

    My nerd alert was on red alert too Lorna and Mona. Apart from what your search brings up in terms of how important keywords analysis tools are, I love the fact that you consulted the dictionary first – this is still my first port of call..any excuse really, as I have a passion for words, their etymology and meanings.

    Reply
  • Claire Boyles

    it is fascinating, but then I love language and the nuances of it!

    One thing I’d say is have a look at the sites people are going to when they use the different search terms, that might reveal more information.

    also, “ette” could be small, as in “Kitchenette” but also makes me think of “Bachelorette” for some reason (even though I don’t believe that’s a word!)

    language constantly changes, as does the use and meaning of words, so the bottom line is that you’re in control of how our language evolves on this particular topic- because people read your blog- you’re an influence on those readers.

    Which do you like best?

    Reply
    • Lorna

      When I get thinking about words, they really fascinate me. I like farmerette best because to me it sounded more solid, more ‘farmerish’, farmette sounded more like a city farm girl but that is just my interpretation. I wonder why Imen will say when she reads the post 🙂

      Reply
  • WiseMona

    I will not lie…the ‘nerd alert’ was going off when I read this but then I started to look at the numbers and jumped on the nerd bandwagon!
    I this that Farmette in the US is the equivalent of our ‘small hold’ here in Europe. Wow…those statistics are very interesting. I hope to grasp a better understanding of the Google keywords tool soon. You are mighty for teaching us ‘how’ you u it on a regular basis. Enjoy the weekend!

    Reply
    • Lorna

      I only thought of looking it up on the keyword tool today and thought the difference was interesting. The dictionary definition of farmer isn’t gender specific and refers to a person who is farming the land. It is also explained as an ‘unsophisticated person who lives in a rural area’.
      Maybe we farmerette/farmettes consider ourselves more sophisticated! Although as I’d consider myself very much a fair weather farmer – that was the reason I went for calling myself a farmerette.

      Reply
  • Valerie Coleman

    Would have though that “Farmette” meant “little farm” similar to West Cork/Kerry people using the addition of “een” to the end of words to signify small – my aunt used to say “calfeen” to mean a new born calf or “boyeen” to mean, obviously, a young boy.

    Have always understood why you used “Farmerette” as being a female Farmer and personally think this is the right term.

    That’s my tuppence worth on the subject anyway, for what it is worth!

    Reply
      • Valerie Coleman

        reckon so. Mum had a friend (from a town) who used it for everything – “shopeen” was the corner shop as opposed to the supermarket etc. it was thrown into every conversation. My aunt (who lived on a farm from her late 40’s onwards but was originally from the city) even called a “baby” lamb a “lambeen”! Has made for good memories of time spent in Castletownbere though 🙂

        Reply

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