Oxford English Dictionary: what follows are selections from the OED entries for various headwords. Not all the definitions, and not all the examples, are given. I’ve also left out some or all of the etymological comments.
2. Also Man. In abstract or generic sense. Now only without article. a. The human race or species; mankind, humankind (personified as an individual); (Zool.) the human race viewed as a genus (Homo) or species (H. sapiens) of animal. In Old English freq. with the definite article. The English use of the word as a quasi-proper name, without article, differs from the practice of a number of modern European languages (cf. French l’homme, German der Mensch), and from the usage of English itself with regard to other generic names of animals (see quot. 1898). eOE (Mercian) Vespasian Psalter viii. 5 Quid est homo quod memor, es eius : hwet is mon [OE ÆLFRED tr. Psalms (Paris), se mann] æt gemyndig u sie his. … POPE Ess. Man II. 2 The only Science of Mankind is Man. 1797 Encycl. Brit. X. 507/2 In the Systema Naturæ, Man (Homo) is ranked as a distinct genus of the Primates. 1898 Guide Mammalia Brit. Mus. 11 Man, Apes, and Monkeys constitute the suborder Anthropoidea. 1935 Times 11 Feb. 14/2 Man as a personality is destined to be a free citizen in a free world, not an ant in some human termitary. 1994 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 19/1 But man is a problem solving animal and his ingenuity is endless. b. Chiefly Anthropol. With modifying word, often the name of the place where the first remains were found: a particular prehistoric type of human being or member of the genus Homo; a particular fossil hominid. Cro-Magnon, Java, Neanderthal, Peking, Rhodesian Man, etc.: see the first element. Cf. also Piltdown man. 1863 T. H. HUXLEY Evid. Man’s Place Nature iii. 142 The posterior lobe of the brain of the Neanderthal man must have been as much flattened as I suspected it to be 1973 B. J. WILLIAMS Evol. & Human Origins x. 169/2 The bone of the Swanscombe skull is thinner than that of Peking Man but thicker than in modern man’s. c. With modifying word: a type of human being living at a particular time or in a particular place or habitat, as modern man, urban man, etc. Now also used humorously to typify a particular class of people. II. An adult male human being, and senses principally based on this. c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) 76 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 108 Suye gret prece of gurles and Men comen hire al-a-boute. 1837 DICKENS Pickwick Papers xxiv. 248 An elderly gentleman in top-boots, who had been..a peace-officer, man and boy, for half a century. d. In abstract or generic sense, without article: the male human being. Cf. sense 2. g. The personal character or intrinsic qualities of a man, as distinguished from his achievements, abilities or learning, rank or wealth, etc.; a man in his human (as distinguished from his professional, etc.) capacity or character. 1599 R. GREENE George a Greene sig. F1, Were ye as good as Robin Hood, and his three mery men, Ile driue you backe the same way that ye came. 1991 Newsweek 20 May 20/3 The vice-president’s men hoped for a public backlash against the Quayle-bashers in the press. b. spec. A vassal, a liegeman; a feudal tenant. Also fig. (in Middle English poetry): a lover (cf. sense 8b). Now hist. 6. A fighting man, a man-at-arms, a soldier; a member of a force fighting under the command of a specified person; (now) esp. a soldier, sailor, or airman as distinguished from an officer. Chiefly in pl. 7. a. A male personal attendant; a manservant, a valet. b. gen. A workman, an employee. Freq. in opposition to master (MASTER n.1 2a) 8. a. A husband. Now chiefly Eng. regional (north.), Sc., and S. Afr., exc. in man and wife. Cf. GOODMAN n. 2b. b. A lover, a suitor. Cf. sense 5b. 9. a. A person (usually an adult male) regarded in terms of the qualities of courage, strength, or responsibility, etc., traditionally associated with adult males. Also (in extended use): manliness, courage (obs.). c1330 (?a1300) Sir Tristrem 2782 Tristrem, as aman Fast he gan to fit. c1390 (a1376) LANGLAND Piers Plowman (Vernon) A. III. 205 Meede make him beo bilouet and for a Mon I-holden. a1450 (c1410) H. LOVELICH Hist. Holy Grail xiii. 930 And vppon him proveth that e men ben! 1598 J. MARSTON Scourge of Villanie vii, A man, a man, a kingdome for a man! 1602 J. MARSTON Antonio & Mellida I, in Wks. (1856) I. 15 Heape up thy powers, double all thy man. 1608 SHAKESPEARE Lear II. ii. 218 Hauing more man then wit about me. 1734 POPE Ess. Man IV. 193 Worth makes the Man, and want of it the Fellow. 1854 THACKERAY Newcomes I. xxix. 286 Be a man Jack, and have no more of this puling. 1900 J. MORLEY Cromwell V. vii. 453 Of that pettish egotism which regards a step taken on advice as a humiliation, he [sc. Cromwell] had not a trace; he was a man. 1990 New Age Oct. 42/1 For generations men have been toughened up and shut down. Be a man; don’t get emotional; that’s for women.
woman, n. [OE. wífmon(n, -man(n masc., later fem., pl. wífmen(n, f. wíf woman, WIFE n. + mon(n, man(n human being, MAN n.1 A formation peculiar to English, and not extant in the earliest period of OE., the ancient word being WIFE.
The regular ME. descendants of OE. wífman, -men, viz. wimman, wimmen (cf. OE. léofman, ME. lemman, LEMAN) continued in use until the 15th century. By c 1200 the rounding of wi- to wu- is clearly established, and is at that time characteristic of western ME. texts. The form womman appears in the late 13th century (first in western texts), and the corresponding pl. wommen in the late 14th. The simplification of mm in womman, -en and wimman, -en, and the consequent conversion of the first syllable into an open syllable gave rise to forms with and , which, continuing to the early modern period, provided the occasion for punning analyses of wman and wmen (see 1k below). From c1400 woman and women became regular spellings for sing. and pl., and have been retained as a properly corresponding pair to man and men; but in the standard speech the pronunciation (wu-) was ultimately appropriated to the sing. and (wi-) to the pl., probably through the associative influence of pairs like foot and feet.
From at least the 16th century, the only variety in the pronunciation of the pl. has been in respect of the quantity of the first vowel, which was either short or long in the 16th and 17th centuries; but in the same period no less than five pronunciations of the sing. are recognized by orthoepists, viz. (wmn), (wumn), (wmn), and (mn), (mn), of which all but the first have now sunk to vulgar or dialectal status.
Examples of the -forms of the sing., without initial w, follow here; for illustration of the more normal forms see sense 1.
1558 CHARNOCK Bk. Astron. Title of Chapter (MS.) Is the theffe man or owman or bothe? 1898 G. W. E. RUSSELL Coll. & Recoll. 14 Like other high-bred people of his time, he [sc. Lord John Russell]..called a woman an ‘‘ooman’.] 1591 Two Gent. IV. iv. 165 Our youth got me to play the womans part, And I was trim’d in Madam Iulias gowne. 1667 1697 CONGREVE Mourn. Bride III. ad. fin., Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d. 1835 HOOK G. Gurney vii. in New Mo. Mag. XLIV. 18 A girl of seventeen is a woman, when a man of seventeen is a boy. 1867 Act 30 & 31 Vict. c. 130 §3 In this Act..’Woman’ shall mean a Female of the Age of Eighteen Years or upwards. 1887 Act 50 & 51 Vict. c. 58 §75 In this Act..’Woman’ means a female of the age of sixteen years or upwards. 1889 ‘J. S. WINTER’ Mrs. Bob v, A girl she was not, but a woman of at least nine and twenty. b. Generically without article: The female human being; the female part of the human race, the female sex. Hence gen. woman’s = womanly, female, feminine. d. As a mode of address. (Cf. MAN n.1 4e.) Now (except dial. and in renderings of foreign modes of speech) used chiefly derogatorily or jocularly. c1440 York Myst. ix. 93 O! woman, arte ou woode? 1667 MILTON P.L. IX. 343 O Woman, best are all things as the will Of God ordaind them. 1901 S. MACNAUGHTAN Fortune of Christina M’Nab i, ‘Woman, you are just perfect’, responded Colin, ‘but you have not got the English tone.’ e. With allusion to qualities conventionally attributed to the female sex, as mutability, capriciousness, proneness to tears; also to their traditional consignment to a position of inferiority or subjection (phr. to make a woman of, to bring into submission). c1400 Beryn 872 She had done a vommans dede. c1515 Interl. Four Elem. (Percy Soc.) 23 Then know I a lyghter mete than that... It is evyn a womans tounge, For that is ever sterynge! a1548 HALL Chron., Hen. VIII 185b, This peace was called the womennes peace, for because that notwithstandyng this conclusion, yet neither the Emperoure trusted the Frenche kyng, nor he neither trusted nor loued hym. 1591 SHAKES. Two Gent. I. ii. 23 Iul. Your reason? Lu. I haue no other but a womans reason: I thinke him so, because I thinke him so. 1593 Passionate Morrice (1876) 79 At last, with a resolution, she played the woman, falling into so kinde a vaine of scoulding, as she had charged him with a thousand discourtesies. 1595 SHAKES. John V. vi. 22. 1596 Tam. Shr. IV. v. 36. 1596 1 Hen. IV, II. iii. 112. 1602 Ham. I. ii. 146 Frailty, thy name is woman. 1605 1st Pt. Jeronimo I. ii. 62 Be woman in all partes, saue in thy eies. 1612 FIELD (title) A Woman is a Weather-cocke. 1677 W. HUGHES Man of Sin II. viii. 125 O what great Bargains are these! and cheap enough in any Womans Conscience! 1742 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. IV. 579 We conquer’d You, we made Women of you. 1836 W. IRVING Astoria xxi. II. 40, I have seen your husband carrying wood into his lodge to make the fire. Where was his squaw, that he should be obliged to make a woman of himself? 1850 SMEDLEY F. Fairlegh xxvii, Don’t make such a fuss; you’re as bad as a woman. 1851 KINGSLEY Three Fishers 5 For men must work, and women must weep. f. (Now always with the.) The essential qualities of a woman; womanly characteristics; that which makes a woman what she is; womanliness; occas. the feminine side or aspect; predicatively = feminine, womanish. 1611 BEAUM. & FL. King & No K. IV. iv, But that my eyes Have more of woman in ‘em than my heart, I would not weep. 1637 N. WHITING Albino & Bellama 18 Not in a fit of woman cry and whine. 1661 EVELYN Tyrannus 25 It is not possible to say which is the more Woman of the two Coated Sardanapalus’s. 1676 DRYDEN Aurengz. v. 80 All the Woman work’d within your mind. 1771 MACKENZIE Man Feel. xxi. (1803) 28 Take away that girl,..she has woman about her, already. 1821 SCOTT Kenilw. xiv, It might be..said, that the Earl of Sussex had been most serviceable to the Queen, while Leicester was most dear to the woman. 1834 SIR H. TAYLOR Artevelde I. II. iii, Teach her to subdue The woman in her nature. 1844 Fraser’s Mag. XXX. 532/2 Liddy was really taking the woman upon her in earnest. 1885 ‘MRS. ALEXANDER’ At Bay vii, She knew that all the woman in her somewhat masculine nature had gone out, in maternal affection to her husband’s nephew. 1894 ‘G. EGERTON’ Keynotes 188 To get at the woman under that infernal corset. h. In contrast, explicit or implicit, with ‘lady’ (see LADY n. 4). 1788 WESLEY Wks. (1872) VII. 34 Hunting, shooting, fishing, wherein not many women (I should say ladies) are concerned. 1837 DICKENS Pickw. xxxii, ‘You are such an unreasonable woman,’ remonstrated Mr. Benjamin Allen. ‘I beg your parding, young man,’ said Mrs. Raddle,..’but who do you call a woman?’ 1847 Athenæum 30 Oct. 1128/1 Defendant pleaded..that the person described as a woman was in fact a lady. 1855 MRS. GASKELL North & S. xxxix, So that was the lady you spoke of as a woman?.. You might have told me who she was. k. In the 16th and 17th centuries freq. with play on a pseudo-etymological association with woe; also, less freq., between weemen (= women) and we men. Obs. ?a1500 Chester Plays, Creat. 259 Woman,..soothe said I in prophesie when thou wast taken of my body, mans woe thou woldest be witlie, therfore thou wast so named. 1534 MORE Comf. agst. Trib. To Rdr., Man himselfe borne of a woman, is in deede a wo man, that is, ful of wo and miserie. 1546 J. HEYWOOD Prov. II. vii, A woman! As who saith, woe to the man! 1589 PUTTENHAM Engl. Poesie II. xviii. (Arb.) 147 Not money: nor many, Nor any: but any, Not weemen, but weemen beare the bell. 1601 in Bullen More Lyrics (1888) 143 Women, what are they?.. We men, what are we? 1616 R. C. Times’ Whistle v. 1962 Woemen when they will Can weep. 1653 R. FLECKNOE Misc. 70 Shep. Woe has end, when ‘tis alone: But in woman never none. Nim. Say of Woman worst ye can, What prolongs their woe, but man? 4. a. A wife. Now only dial. and U.S.
Cf. OLD WOMAN 1b and the corresp. use of man (MAN n.1 8). b. appos. (a) = ‘female’, esp. with designations of occupation or profession: woman doctor, driver, -help, journalist, officer, p.c., police officer, -savage, teacher, etc. 7. Special comb.: woman-actor, (a) an actress; (b) an actor who takes women’s parts; woman-boat = women’s boat (10); woman-body dial., a person of the female sex, woman; woman-born a., born of woman; woman-dangler, one who dangles after women; woman-errant, one who goes after women; woman-grown a., that has become a woman; woman-hour, an hour’s work done by a woman; woman-house Sc., a laundry: see also women-house (9c); woman-keeper, a female nurse; woman-louper Sc., a whoremonger; woman-mad a., mad after women; woman-man, an effeminate man, or one who in some way resembles a woman; woman-market, a place for the sale (lit. or fig.) of women; woman-movement, the movement for the emancipation of women, or the recognition and extension of women’s rights; woman-palaver African, illicit commerce with a woman or women; woman-physician, (a) a woman’s doctor; (b) a woman-doctor; woman-post, a female messenger or courier; woman-power, (a) the exercise of authority by women; (b) the number of women available for work; the power of women in work; woman question, a controversy over the rights of women, esp. that in the nineteenth century; woman-raving a. = woman-mad; woman-reputation, reputation with women; woman-shoemaker, a maker of women’s shoes; woman-slaughter, the killing of a woman by a human being; woman-suffrage, the right of women to vote in public affairs; hence woman-suffragist, an advocate of woman-suffrage; woman-surgeon, one who beautifies women by the aid of paints, washes, etc.; woman-tired a. [TIRE v.2 2], hen-pecked; woman trouble colloq., (a) U.S., gynæcological problems (cf. TROUBLE n. 4); (b) difficulties caused to a man by a relationship with a woman or women; (on) woman-ways, -wise advs., after the manner of a woman or women; woman-year, a year of a woman’s life; esp. used as a cumulative measure in medical tests carried out on a number of different women.
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