womankind

Etymology

It is formed from English woman + kind,^[2][3][4] Middle English wommankinde, also wommenkinde.^[3][5] The OED sees in the first quotation, from the “Ormulum”, a compound whose first element continues Old English wīfmanna, the genitive plural of wīfmann, although no such compound is recorded in Old English, where Ælfric has only a phrase with the genitive singular.^[2] Compare mankind, humankind, womankin and the later womenkind.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Women considered together, the female sex: about 1175, in the Ormulum,^[2][5] late in the 12th century in Etymonline.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense only to the 15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named the female sex as a whole, on the model of mankind.^[2][5] From about 1450 it could also mean a single woman or girl, a use now rare or obsolete.^[2][4] Between 1549 and 1883 it could also mean womanly nature or womanhood.^[2] The sense "the women of a particular family or household" is recorded from 1557,^[2] and Etymonline notes a humorous use for the women of one's own household from the 1570s.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the female sex; the race of women", quoting Sidney and Spenser.^[8] Middle English wommankin meant the mother's side of a family,^[3] and womenfolk is recorded from 1842.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – women collectively, the female sex.^[2][5]
• c. 1450 – a woman or girl (now rare).^[2][4]
• 1549 – womanly nature, womanhood (obsolete by 1883).^[2]
• 1557 – the women of a family, household or other group.^[2]
• c. 1570 – predicatively, female (obsolete by 1879).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Women as a whole; the female members of the human race: The charity works for the welfare of womankind.^[9][7][2]
2. The women of a particular family, household or community; the womenfolk.^[7][2][4]
3. (archaic) A single woman.^[7][2][4]

Related words

• woman
• kind
• mankind
• humankind
• womenfolk
• womanhood

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins