scholl@uvmark.uucp (Kathryn Scholl) (03/08/91)
I am somewhat new to the net, and have noticed in many groups the word "womyn" used instead of "women". I am curious as to: - how long this word has been used. - why it is used (because "wo'men'" is considered an extension of "men" and they (we) want their (our) own word?). - who generally uses it (feminist literature, etc.), as I had never seen it before, and am not knowledgeable in the fem.lit. environment. - what type of response the usage of this word is getting outside of the circle(s) in which it is being used. - other "new" words of this kind, such as "her", "him", etc. Please e-mail. And please, no flames to the effect of "you are a woman, you should have known this". I am just trying to learn. Thanks! Kathryn -- Kathryn Scholl ...uunet!merk!uvmark!scholl
kleinj@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (03/10/91)
"Womyn" commonly refers to lesbians--especially radical lesbian/feminists-- who refuse to use the word "men" in their identity. 'Nuff said. [Would any straight women who use the spelling "womyn" care to respond? - MHN]
WNR0@ns.cc.lehigh.edu (Whitney Noel Rearick) (03/13/91)
The derivation of the word 'woman' is literally 'wife of man'. Similarly, 'female' is derived from the Latin 'to suckle'. I, for one, have not yet found a suitable word to describe myself! Even 'human' describes me in terms of a man. The rest of my life is not defined relative to what a man is or does (or at least I try to act that way), so why should the terms that describe me be so? Hope that helped, even if in a strange way--it was rather painful for me when I first heard it. WNR0
nadel@aero.org (M.H. Nadel) (03/14/91)
In article <12039120:43:54WNR0@lehigh.bitnet> WNR0@ns.cc.lehigh.edu (Whitney Noel Rearick) writes: >The derivation of the word 'woman' is literally 'wife of man'. Actually, this is incorrect. The word "man" originally referred to any human, i.e. was entirely gender-neutral. "Wifman" referred to a female human and "werman" to a male human. The "wer" prefix now exists only in the word "werewolf". (Hence, a woman who grows hair and claws and howls and roams the countryside eating people at the full moon is properly referred to as a "wifwolf" but I am, so far as I know, the only person to use that term.) Somewhere along the line, the "wer" prefix fell into disuse and the word "man" became ambiguous. The "wif" prefix mutated into "wo", and also retained a separate existence as the word "wife." Note that "wife" did not necessarily refer to a married woman until fairly recently (maybe the 19th century). In colonial America "goodwife" was essentially the equivalent of "Ms." and became abbreviated to "goody." While we're on this, the word "lady" is derived from "hleddige" meaning a kneader of dough. Of course, it came to mean precisely the sort of woman who would never be seen baking her own bread as she'd have servants to do it. And "girl" originally referred to a young child of either sex. The moral of which is that etymology doesn't tell you very much. Miriam Nadel -- "It is not the kind of play you would expect from a six-foot-five man who once played a giraffe on Broadway." - Kelli Pryor, reviewing Keith Curran's _Dalton's Back_ nadel@aerospace.aero.org
jym@mica.berkeley.edu (Jym Dyer) (03/14/91)
> The derivation of the word 'woman' is literally 'wife of man'. ___ __ *Heavy*sigh*. The problem with etymology is that it's too _ easy for hypotheses and even wild-assed-guesses to sound plausible. "Wife of man" is an example of this, and while it's been made quite popular, it just isn't true. ___ __ There once was a time, way, way back, when "man" did not _ mean male. A female person was a "wyfman" and a male person was a "werman." "Wyfman" begat "woman" and "wife," and "werman" begat "werewolf." ___ __ Much later, readers and writers of English, who were over- _ whelmingly male, pitched the "wer-" prefix and started using "man" to refer to maile people. (And much later, of course, they attempted to resurrect "man" as a false generic term for either sex.) ___ __ The point is that the "man" in "woman" has nothing to do with _ males, nor relationships to same. ___ __ My understanding is that the word "womyn" was coined on the _ basis of this false etymology, and that once the error was pointed out it was decided to keep the term simply to assert separateness from men anyhow. > Even 'human' describes me in terms of a man. ___ __ *Heavier*sigh*. No, "human" comes from a whole 'nother root. _ And before anyone brings up the third popular etymological fallacy, "manual" has nothing to do with males either. <_Jam_>