8 March
Etymologically presents
Words for Women’s Day
For International Women’s Day: the old words for women and how they changed, the vocabulary of the long campaign for the vote, and the words named after women.
Words for women
Where the everyday words for women came from, and how some of them changed.
- Old English woman from wīfmann A “female person”: wīf, “woman”, and mann, which then meant any human being. Wīfmann wore down to wimman and then woman; the old plural pronunciation, wimmen, survives in women. Read the full etymology →
- Old English wife from wīf “woman” At first simply a woman, married or not, as in midwife and old wives’ tales. Its origin beyond the Germanic languages is unknown. Housewife, worn down, became hussy. Read the full etymology →
- Old English lady from hlǣfdīge The mistress of a household, literally the “loaf-kneader”: hlāf, “bread”, and a word related to dough. Her husband was the hlāford, the “loaf-ward”, the lord. Read the full etymology →
- Old English queen from cwēn “woman, wife” Before it meant a ruler it meant a woman or a wife. Its distant cousin is Greek gynḗ, “woman”, as in gynaecology. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1300 girl from origin unknown At first a child of either sex: a knave girl was a boy. Girl came to mean a female child only in the late 14th century. Read the full etymology →
- early 14th century female from Latin femella “young woman” A diminutive of femina. It was spelled femelle until it was reshaped to rhyme with male, a word to which it is not related at all. Read the full etymology →
- mid-14th century feminine from Latin femina From femina, “woman”, perhaps originally “she who gives suck”, from the same root as fecund and fetus. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1300 madam from Old French ma dame “my lady” From Latin mea domina, “my mistress”, the feminine of dominus, “lord”. Madonna is the Italian form of the same phrase. Read the full etymology →
Votes for women
The vocabulary of the campaigns for equal rights.
- late 14th century suffrage from Latin suffragium First a prayer of intercession, then a vote, from Latin suffragium, a voting tablet or the right to vote; where the Latin came from is disputed. Read the full etymology →
- 1906 suffragette from suffrage + -ette Coined by the Daily Mail as a belittling diminutive for the militant campaigners. They took up the name with pride. Read the full etymology →
- 1895 feminism from French féminisme Earlier, in English, the state of being feminine. The sense “advocacy of women’s rights” came from French in the 1890s. Read the full etymology →
- 1620s emancipate from Latin emancipare In Roman law, to release a son from his father’s power: e, “out of”, manus, “hand”, and capere, “to take”. Out of the hand that holds you. Read the full etymology →
- 1540s ballot from Italian ballotta “little ball” Venetians voted in secret by dropping small balls into a box. Blackball comes from the same practice. Read the full etymology →
- mid-15th century vote from Latin votum “vow, wish” A solemn promise or a wish, the root of vow and devote; then the wish expressed by a show of hands or a mark on paper. Read the full etymology →
Named after women
Campaigners, saints, goddesses and stars of the stage, remembered in the dictionary.
- Amelia Bloomer gave English bloomers The loose trousers worn under a short skirt that the American campaigner for women’s rights championed from 1851, to free women from heavy skirts.
- Ada Lovelace gave English Ada The programming language of 1980 was named after the mathematician who, in the 1840s, published what is often called the first computer program.
- the Amazons gave English Amazon The warrior women of Greek legend; the Greek tale that their name meant “breastless” is a folk etymology. The river was named for women warriors a Spanish expedition reported fighting in 1542.
- Mary Magdalene gave English maudlin From Maudelen, the old English form of her name: painters showed her weeping, so maudlin came to mean tearfully sentimental.
- Saint Audrey gave English tawdry Tawdry lace, “Saint Audrey’s lace”, was the cheap silk neckwear sold at her fair at Ely. Audrey had regretted wearing necklaces as a young woman.
- Ceres gave English cereal The Roman goddess of grain and harvest. The breakfast kind arrived in the 1890s.
- Anna Pavlova gave English pavlova The meringue dessert, as light as the Russian ballerina it was named after on her tours in the 1920s. Australia and New Zealand both claim it.
- Mae West gave English Mae West RAF slang of 1940 for an inflatable life jacket, in tribute to the actress’s famous figure.