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Origin and history of womanize
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"adult female human," Middle English womman, from late Old English wimman, wiman (plural wimmen), literally "woman-man," an alteration of earlier wifman (plural wifmen) "woman; female servant" (8c.). This is a compound of wif, the older word for "woman" (see wife) + man in the sense of "human being" (see man (n.)).
It is notable that it was thought necessary to join wif, a neuter noun, representing a female person, to man, a masc. noun representing either a male or female person, to form a word denoting a female person exclusively. [Century Dictionary]
Compare Dutch vrouwmens "wife," literally "woman-man." The formation is peculiar to English and Dutch. In English it replaced wif and quean as "female human being," as in Jesus's answer to his mother, in Anglo-Saxon gospels la, wif, hwæt is me and þe? (John ii:4 "Woman, what have I to do with thee?").
The pronunciation altered in Middle English by the rounding influence of -w- (compare wood (n.), Old English wudu, earlier widu). The plural women retains the original vowel-sound. The spelling shift from wi- to wu- is attested by c. 1200, the scribal shift to wo- is by late 13c. (see come (v)). Century Dictionary (1891) suggested a spelling *womman "would be better," along with *woolf for wolf.
The meaning "wife," now largely restricted to U.S. dialectal use, is attested from mid-15c. In American English, lady is "In loose and especially polite usage, a woman" [Craigie, "Dictionary of American English"]. This peculiarity was commented upon by English travelers; in the U.S. the custom was considered especially Southern, but the English regarded it simply as American.
This noble word [woman], spirit-stirring as it passes over English ears, is in America banished, and 'ladies' and 'females' substituted; the one to English taste mawkish and vulgar; the other indistinctive and gross. The effect is odd. [Harriet Martineau, 1837]
Woman-hater "misogynist, one with an aversion to women generally," is from c. 1600. Women's work, that considered appropriate to women, is from 1660s.
Woman suffrage is by 1867. Women's movement is by 1902 (woman movement is by 1883). Women's liberation is attested from 1966; women's rights is from 1840, with an isolated example in 1630s. Womanism is by 1863.
The woman question "controversy over women's rights" is by 1838.
Among the much vexed questions of the day, what is technically called the woman question has a strong prominence. Not only has it been talked upon and written upon, but acted upon in real life. The words, that seemed a wonder and abomination in the mouth of Mary Wolstoncraft, have now become familiar sounds. ["The Woman Question" in Western Messenger, November 1838]
chiefly British English spelling of womanize (q.v.). Related: Womanised; womanising; womaniser.
word-forming element of Greek origin used to make verbs, Middle English -isen, from Old French -iser/-izer, from Late Latin -izare, from Greek -izein, a verb-forming element denoting the doing of the noun or adjective to which it is attached.
The variation of -ize and -ise began in Old French and Middle English, perhaps aided by a few words (such as surprise, see below) where the ending is French or Latin, not Greek. With the classical revival, English partially reverted to the correct Greek -z- spelling from late 16c. But the 1694 edition of the authoritative French Academy dictionary standardized the spellings as -s-, which influenced English.
In Britain, despite the opposition to it (at least formerly) of OED, Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Times of London, and Fowler, -ise remains dominant. Fowler thinks this is to avoid the difficulty of remembering the short list of common words not from Greek which must be spelled with an -s- (such as advertise, devise, surprise). American English has always favored -ize. The spelling variation involves about 200 English verbs.
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