entry
woman
/ˈwʊmən/Adult female human
From O.English wif (woman) + O.English / Germanic mann (person).
from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife)...
from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife)...
from Middle English womman
from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife)...
from Middle English womman
Word Ancestry
from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife)...
from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife)...
from Middle English womman
from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife)...
from Middle English womman
English did something wonderfully blunt here. It took the older word wīf, “woman,” and stapled it to man, which once meant “human being,” not “male,” producing a kind of verbal safety lock: female-person. That’s why the word woman is a cousin of wife, while man in mankind still echoes the older, broader sense. By the time the Anglo-Saxon gospels translated John 2:4, Jesus’s “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” was already using this old Germanic construction. The spelling wandered from wifman to wimman to womman, but the fossilized plural women still keeps the ancient vowel hidden inside it like a coin in a wall.
The Story
English did something wonderfully blunt here. It took the older word wīf, “woman,” and stapled it to man, which once meant “human being,” not “male,” producing a kind of verbal safety lock: female-person. That’s why the word woman is a cousin of wife, while man in mankind still echoes the older, broader sense. By the time the Anglo-Saxon gospels translated John 2:4, Jesus’s “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” was already using this old Germanic construction. The spelling wandered from wifman to wimman to womman, but the fossilized plural women still keeps the ancient vowel hidden inside it like a coin in a wall.
Modern Usage
A joking or dismissive slang sense used in online banter, often from the idea of women as mysterious or unreal; not standard usage
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary
Kin & Kindred
From 'wif'·woman, female
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'mann'·person, human being
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia