See Also
1. “Man” was originally gender-neutral
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In Old English (c. 500–1100 CE), mann meant “person, human being”, regardless of sex.
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If you wanted to specify biological sex, you had:
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wer → adult male (survives in werewolf, “man-wolf”).
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wīf → adult female.
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So originally:
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mann = human (neutral)
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wer = male human
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wīf = female human
Over time, wer fell out of use, mann shifted to mean specifically “male human,” and wīf narrowed to “wife” (married woman).
2. “Wife” and “woman”
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Wīf (OE) = woman/female, not just “married woman.”
(It later narrowed to “married woman” in Middle English.) -
Wīfmann = literally “female person” (wīf = woman, mann = human).
Over time, wīfmann got shortened and sound-shifted:- wīfmann → wimman → woman
So woman literally means “female human” in Old English roots.
3. Why “midwife”?
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Mid in Old English meant “with.”
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Wīf = woman.
So a midwīf was literally “with-woman” → someone (of any gender, but traditionally female) who assisted a woman during childbirth.
That’s why midwife isn’t “middle-wife” or “wife in the middle,” but “the woman who is with (the birthing mother).”
4. The shift
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Over centuries, man lost its neutrality and became male-only.
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Wife narrowed from “woman” to “married woman.”
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Woman retained the original compound structure, though the man in it no longer feels neutral to us today.