A woman is a female human, in contrast to an adult male, who is a man.
The term woman (irregular plural: women) is usually used for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. However, the term is also sometimes used for a female human regardless of age, as in phrases like "women's rights".
Etymology
The
English term "man" (from
Proto-Germanic mannaz "man, person") and words derived therefrom can designate any or even all of the human race regardless of their gender or age. This is indeed the oldest usage of "man". In
Old English
the words
wer and
wyf (also
wæpman and
wifman) were what was used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, and "man" was gender neutral. In
Middle English man displaced wer as term for "male human", whilst wyfman (which eventually evolved into woman) was retained for "female human". "Man" does continue to carry its original sense of "
Human" however, resulting in an
asymmetry sometimes criticized as sexist.
* (See also
Womyn.)
The symbol for the planet
Venus is the sign also known in biology for the female sex: a stylized representation of the goddess Venus's hand
mirror: a circle with a small cross underneath (
Unicode: ♀). The Venus symbol also represented
femininity, and in ancient alchemy stood for
copper. Alchemists constructed the symbol from a circle (representing
spirit) above a cross (representing
matter).
Terminology
The
English language's original word for "woman" was
Old English wīf, akin to German
Weib; it later became the modern word "wife." The modern word "woman"
etymologically derives from
wīfmann, with the addition of
mann, "person", from Germanic
mannaz. This formation is peculiar to English. The equivalents for "man" in Old English were
wer (a cognate of Latin
vir, "man") and
wǣpnedmann, literally "weaponed person". As previously mentioned, the term
man continues to carry its original sense of "
Human", though this usage results in an asymmetry which is sometimes criticized as sexist.
The word
girl originally meant "young person of either sex"; it was only around the beginning of the
16th century that it came to mean specifically a
female child. Nowadays
girl is also often used colloquially to refer to a young or unmarried woman. Since the early
1970s, feminists have challenged such usage, and today, using the word in the workplace (as in
office girl) is typically considered
inappropriate in the
United States and
United Kingdom because it implies a view of women as infantile. The use remains commonplace in several other
English-speaking countries.
Conversely, in certain non-Western cultures which link family
honor with female
virginity, the word
girl is still used to refer to a never-married woman; in this sense it is used in a fashion roughly analogous to the obsolete English
maid or
maiden. Referring to an unmarried female as
woman can, in such a culture, imply that she is sexually experienced, which would be an insult to her family.
In more informal settings, the use of
girl to refer to an adult female is also common practice in certain usage (such as
girls' night out), even among elderly women. In this sense,
girl may be considered to be the analogue to the British word
bloke for a man. Some regard non-parallel usages, such as
men and girls, as
sexist. A number of other
derogatory terms for women are also in common usage.
There are various words used to refer to the quality of being a woman. The term "womanhood" merely means the state of being a woman; "femininity" is used to refer to a set of supposedly typical female qualities associated with a certain attitude to
gender roles; "womanliness" is like "femininity", but is usually associated with a different view of gender roles; "femaleness" is a general term, but is often used as shorthand for "human femaleness"; "distaff" is an archaic adjective derived from women's conventional role as a spinner, now used only as a deliberate
archaism; "
muliebrity" is a "neologism" (derived from the Latin) meant to provide a female counterpart of "
virility", but used very loosely, sometimes to mean merely "womanhood", sometimes "femininity", and sometimes even as a collective term for women.
More on
[ Woman ]
Fowles, John :: F
Drama :: Genres
Romance :: Genres
French Lieutenant's Woman, The - Twitter SearchFYI all my recent and future quotation tweets come from The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles. It's a good read.IdFindAMatch (David Kelly) Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:54:15 -0000
FYI all my recent and future quotation tweets come from The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles. It's a good read.
It's Saturday nite, and I'm in my room reading The French Lieutenant's Woman. After 23 years, I've finally discovered the joy of reading. =)IdFindAMatch (David Kelly) Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:32:16 -0000
It's Saturday nite, and I'm in my room reading The French Lieutenant's Woman. After 23 years, I've finally discovered the joy of reading. =)
So tired! Gonna watch The French Lieutenant's Woman â¥barbistreep (Barbara Toral) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:52:22 -0000
So tired! Gonna watch The French Lieutenant's Woman ♥
RT @FLWbooks: The Magus, The Collector, The French Lieutenant's Woman. written by ths man who died 4 years ago 2day. -> http://bit.ly/1uhfKmdydemzen (dydemkyzen) Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:22:44 -0000
RT @FLWbooks: The Magus, The Collector, The French Lieutenant's Woman. written by ths man who died 4 years ago 2day. -> http://bit.ly/1uhfKm
@ReplacePress I'm going to revisit The Magus as soon as I finish the new Hornby. Maybe I should follow up w/ The French Lieutenant's Woman!edingmann (edingmann) Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:35:40 -0000
@ReplacePress I'm going to revisit The Magus as soon as I finish the new Hornby. Maybe I should follow up w/ The French Lieutenant's Woman!
@edingmann The French Lieutenant's Woman is one of mine! And as it so happens, I just picked up a copy of The Magus the other day.ReplacePress (Replacement Press) Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:39:13 -0000
@edingmann The French Lieutenant's Woman is one of mine! And as it so happens, I just picked up a copy of The Magus the other day.
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dOc DVD Review: The French Lieutenant's Woman - Mark Zimmer's review: An interesting and thought-provoking examination of romance in life imitating art, given a decent transfer. Worth a look, but don't be put off by the image quality of the opening sequence.
Meta Description: [ An interesting and thought-provoking examination of romance in life imitating art, given a decent transfer. Worth a look, but don't be put off by the image quality of the opening sequence. ]
FilmCritic.com: The French Lieutenant's Woman - Christopher Null's review: Overblown and totally full of itself, it's hard to really like Lieutenant's very much. Rated 3/5.
Meta Description: [ filmcritic.com was one of the original movie review sites on the Internet. Founded in 1995, we post movie reviews, film criticism, and celebrity interviews before just about anyone else. Get your movie reviews here -- first!, filmcritic.com - The Internet's #1 source for movie reviews and celeb... ]
IMDb: French Lieutenant's Woman, The - Synopsis, cast and crew, awards and user comments.
Meta Description: [ The French Lieutenant's Woman - Cast, Crew, Reviews, Plot Summary, Comments, Discussion, Taglines, Trailers, Posters, Photos, Showtimes, Link to Official Site, Fan Sites ]
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Spirituality and Health: The French Lieutenant's Woman - Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat's review: ...offers a gripping psychological study of the war between the sexes.
Meta Description: [ Presents her earth-cherishing philosophy along with spiritual practices and exercises to live in harmony with nature.
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