Wimman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic Middle English spelling for an adult female human being, the same as the modern word for a grown-up female
2. An obsolete variant form used in older English to denote a grown female person of the human species
3. Historical spelling meaning an adult female individual, used in medieval English writing before modern spelling settled

Etymology: "Wimman" is the Old English word for a woman, an adult female human, written "wīfmann" or "wifman" in its earliest texts. It is a compound of "wīf," meaning woman or wife, and "mann," meaning person or human being, which in Old English could refer to either sex. Put together, the literal sense was roughly "female person." The two parts are both ancient English words, not borrowings. The second element tells the more surprising story. Old English "mann" did not mean "adult male" until later; it meant a person of either sex, which is why "wīfmann" needed the "wīf" to specify gender. Over time "mann" narrowed to men, and "wīfmann" was left as the marked term for women, eventually giving "woman" in the Middle English period. The "wi-" was worn down in speech, and the spelling "wimman" in medieval writing reflects that softening, with the vowel reduced until the modern pronunciation "WOOM-un" emerged.