In Middle English, male children were “knave” girls, while female children were “gay” girls. It would be senseless in that context for the reference to be to females only, as opposed to young people in general. In “The Canterbury Tales” prologue, Chaucer wrote that the Summoner had “ the yonge girles of the diocise” within his sphere of influence. The other was “girl,” which, believe it or not, didn’t refer only to female children. One was “bairn,” which was not yet restricted to the primarily Scottish use of the word, which still refers to children more generally. “Girl” has an even odder history: In Old English, at first, a baby was a child, but older children could be called two things. When you pronounce a vowel after a “w,” often the vowel becomes rounder, because your lips are still kissed-up, if you will, to make that “w.” The first vowel in the word for this reason became a rounder sound, which is today that first vowel in “woman.” In the plural, though, that vowel stayed the way it was, and brought about a new situation where “wuh-mun” meant singular and “wih-min” meant plural. This is why, for instance, many pronounce “tree” as “chree,” with the “t” sound inching up closer to the front of the mouth where the “ee” sound is going to be pronounced. The singular “woman,” as opposed to the plural “women,” came about in Middle English, as what some would have heard as a mistake or a quirk: Sounds have a way of changing in order to be more like ones near them. Over time, the “f” in “wif” fell away and the result was a word we now pronounce as “wimmin.” There was no “woman.” Yet. The word thus began as referring to a type of person, a woman- person, and not a type of man. “Woman” started as “wif-man,” but “man” first referred to people of either the male or the female gender. A female was a “wif,” and though that word looks and sounds like “wife,” it didn’t refer exclusively to a woman’s marital status - holding on in terms such as “midwife” and “fishwife.” In Old English, at first, a male was a “wer,” which is why a mythical man who can transform into a wolf is called a werewolf. The word “woman” did not begin as a reference to a “wo-” kind of man or male person. Each can help us think about ways we may perceive the humanity around us. In the current political moment, I thought I might share some of them.
English words referring to or meaning “woman” have interesting histories.
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