Female does not come from male. The shared letters are an accident of English spelling drift, and the two words arrive from different Latin roots that never touched.
Documented
Documented
Femella is a diminutive of femina; masle comes from masculus. The OED records female being respelled under the influence of male in Middle English, a pure folk association that hardened into standard spelling. The words are etymologically unrelated.
Assessment: Documented in the OED entries for female and male; the respelling-by-association is the standard account.
Stories
Stories
The common claim runs both directions: female means from male, or male is the default and female the derivative. Both read a patriarchal design into what is actually a spelling collision. The critique of language defaults is legitimate; this particular pair is innocent.
Assessment: The grammatical-default debate in linguistics is real; this etymology is not evidence for it.
Interesting claims
Interesting claims
Feminist linguists have cataloged the pairs where the male form really is the base, actor and actress, hero and heroine, which makes female the interesting false positive in a pattern that is otherwise often true.
Assessment: The marked-form pattern is documented; the female example is the famous exception that keeps the pattern honest.
Sources and further reading
OED, female, from Old French femelle, Latin femella
OED, male, from Old French masle, Latin masculus
The Middle English respelling of female by association with male
Worth asking
Two words that met on the page and got mistaken for family. How many of our assumptions work exactly this way?