woman
An adult female human being.
Etymology
From Old English wīfmann, a compound of wīf (woman, wife) and mann (person). The wīf element descends from Proto-Germanic *wībą, whose PIE origin is debated — some link it to *gʰeybʰ- (to be ashamed) or *weyp- (to tremble), but neither is widely accepted. The mann element derives from PIE *man- (man, person). The standard reconstruction *gʷenh₃- (woman, wife) gave rise to the Greek gunē and Old English cwēn (queen), not directly to the word woman itself.
The Journey: *gʷenh₃- → woman
*gʷenh₃-
*wībą + *mann-
wīfmann
womman
woman
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *gʷenh₃-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | gunē (γυνή) — woman |
| Persian | zan — woman |
| Sanskrit | jani — wife, woman |
| Old Irish | ben — woman |
Did You Know?
The word woman preserves an ancient compound: wīf + mann. The plural women retains the original vowel of wīf in its pronunciation, which is why we say /wɪmɪn/ not /wʊmən/.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷenh₃-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.