I'm pretty sure a Womynx was the boss on level 7 in Eye of the Beholder II.
I'm pretty sure a Womynx was the boss on level 7 in *Eye of the Beholder II*.
Interesting history from the linked article:
Here's the actual etymology on this, which is interesting. Which these little imbeciles should bother acquainting themselves with before butchering the language.
"Man," originally, in the Old English, did not mean "man." It meant "one" or "person" -- genderlessly. It still means that in German (well, as "Mann").
Specific sense of "adult male of the human race" (distinguished from a woman or boy) is by late Old English (c. 1000); Old English used wer and wif to distinguish the sexes, but wer began to disappear late 13c. and was replaced by man. Universal sense of the word remains in mankind and manslaughter. Similarly, Latin had homo "human being" and vir "adult male human being," but they merged in Vulgar Latin, with homo extended to both senses.
So, to digest, in both Old English and in Latin, presumably coincidentally, there were separate words for "human being" and "adult male," and the word for "human being" later evolved to mean both "human being" and "adult male."
However, that root meaning of "Human being" persists, and remains in a lot of derived words.
The word for "man" in Old English was wer. That's where werewolf comes from; it means man-wolf.
The word for "woman" was "wif," from which of course derives "wife." But from which also derives "woman," as "wif" was combined with "man" to form "wifman," or "womanperson." Which became "woman" over time.
So you're not cutting the "male" out of the word "woman." You're cutting out the "person."
Interesting history from the linked article:
>
Here's the actual etymology on this, which is interesting. Which these little imbeciles should bother acquainting themselves with before butchering the language.
>
"Man," originally, in the Old English, did not mean "man." It meant "one" or "person" -- genderlessly. It still means that in German (well, as "Mann").
>
Specific sense of "adult male of the human race" (distinguished from a woman or boy) is by late Old English (c. 1000); Old English used wer and wif to distinguish the sexes, but wer began to disappear late 13c. and was replaced by man. Universal sense of the word remains in mankind and manslaughter. Similarly, Latin had homo "human being" and vir "adult male human being," but they merged in Vulgar Latin, with homo extended to both senses.
>
So, to digest, in both Old English and in Latin, presumably coincidentally, there were separate words for "human being" and "adult male," and the word for "human being" later evolved to mean both "human being" and "adult male."
>
However, that root meaning of "Human being" persists, and remains in a lot of derived words.
>
The word for "man" in Old English was wer. That's where werewolf comes from; it means man-wolf.
>
The word for "woman" was "wif," from which of course derives "wife." But from which also derives "woman," as "wif" was combined with "man" to form "wifman," or "womanperson." Which became "woman" over time.
>
So you're not cutting the "male" out of the word "woman." You're cutting out the "person."
(post is archived)