Journeywoman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A female tradesperson who has successfully finished training and is capable of working independently in her chosen field
2. An experienced woman in a skilled occupation who has surpassed initial training and is authorized to operate on her own
3. A woman who has completed apprenticeship and can practice her trade without supervision

Etymology: "Journeywoman" is a compound of "journey" and "woman," and its history turns on a word that once meant something quite different from a trip. "Journey" came into English from Old French "journee," meaning a day, and it originally referred to a day's travel or a day's work. The sense of "journeyman," a worker who had finished apprenticeship and was paid by the day, grew out of that idea of a day's labour, which is why the word came to mean a qualified tradesperson rather than a traveller. "Journeywoman" follows the same pattern, applying the "journey" sense of skilled daily work to a woman who has completed her training. The word "woman" simply supplies the gender, so the compound is a plain combination of two English parts rather than a borrowed term.

Synonyms: traveler, voyager, wayfarer, explorer, globetrotter