potoooooooo ✅️@lemmy.world to History Memes@piefed.socialEnglish · 6 days agoMaybe I've just got the wrong history booklemmy.worldimagemessage-square74linkfedilinkarrow-up1656arrow-down14
arrow-up1652arrow-down1imageMaybe I've just got the wrong history booklemmy.worldpotoooooooo ✅️@lemmy.world to History Memes@piefed.socialEnglish · 6 days agomessage-square74linkfedilink
minus-squareabsentbird@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up2·4 days ago‘man’ and ‘men’ started as gender neutral terms, like a shortened form of ‘human’. The prefix for male humans was ‘wer’ and for female humans ‘wif’, which is where we get the words werewolf and wife.
minus-squarepotoooooooo ✅️@lemmy.worldOPlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up1·2 days agoWait, so I’m a werman?
minus-squareabsentbird@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up2·2 days agoYep, though I think usually people just used ‘man’; the ‘wer’ prefix was for when gender was important, like ‘husband’ or ‘father’. When the Normans invaded, the English language tilted more towards explicit gender. I blame the French.
‘man’ and ‘men’ started as gender neutral terms, like a shortened form of ‘human’. The prefix for male humans was ‘wer’ and for female humans ‘wif’, which is where we get the words werewolf and wife.
Wait, so I’m a werman?
Yep, though I think usually people just used ‘man’; the ‘wer’ prefix was for when gender was important, like ‘husband’ or ‘father’.
When the Normans invaded, the English language tilted more towards explicit gender. I blame the French.