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humankind

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Etymology and origin of the English word humankind

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 1504 Stephen Hawes, Example of Vertu
Ultimate origins
Old French humainOld English gecynd
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English human
English humankind
From the same root
English humanoid ← human
English superhuman ← human

Pronunciation

  • /ˌhjuːmənˈkaɪnd/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English human + kind,[2][3][4][5] after mankind,[2][4][6] and was at first written with a space between its parts.[3][6] The OED compares the earlier womankind and menkind, and the older humanity.[2] Middle English had humaigne lynage for the human race in the mid-15th century.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Human nature, the fact of being human: perhaps 1504, in Stephen Hawes's Example of Vertu, a sense the OED marks as rare and obsolete.[2]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, the human race, appears in 1561, in B. Googe's translation of the Zodiake of Life.[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1594,[7] Dictionary.com to 1635–45 and Etymonline to the 1640s, both treating it as a word formed from the phrase human kind.[6][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the race of man; mankind", quoting Pope.[5] Collins lists it with humanity and mankind as words for the human race.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1504 – human nature (obsolete).[2]
  • 1561 – the human race.[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1594 and Etymonline to the 1640s.[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The human race; all human beings taken together; mankind: The invention changed the lives of all humankind.[8][7][2][4]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Humankind.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/humankind. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·