distaff vs enate

distaff

adj
  • Of the maternal side of a family. 

  • Of, relating to, or characteristic of women. 

noun
  • The part of a spinning wheel from which fibre is drawn to be spun. 

  • A woman, or women considered as a group. 

  • A device to which a bundle of natural fibres (often wool, flax, or cotton) are attached for temporary storage, before being drawn off gradually to spin thread. A traditional distaff is a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it (as indicated by the etymology of the word), but modern distaffs are often made of cords weighted with beads, and attached to the wrist. 

  • A race for female horses only. 

  • Anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only. 

enate

adj
  • Related on the maternal side of the family. 

  • Related to someone by female connections. 

  • Having identical grammatical structure (but with elements that are semantically different). 

  • Growing out. 

noun
  • Any maternal female relative. 

  • A relative whose relation is traced only through female members of the family. 

How often have the words distaff and enate occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )