Hmm.

  • man_in_space@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    “Were” is cognate to Latin vir ‘man’—cf. “werewolf” (‘man-wolf’).

    “Woman” comes from a compound meaning “woman-person” (wif-mæn, cf. “wife”); a man was a wæpned-mæn (“weapon-person” or “penis-person”). The lexical narrowing of “man” to mean ‘male’ happened later, and it was indeed originally a gender-neutral term.