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Unread 01-29-2021, 12:16 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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I cannot confirm that the word existed, but the point remains the same. The word "man" did not refer to the male gender, but to human beings of either gender. The word for a man was "wer", not "man," and the "man" suffix in "woman" simply referred to being human. So "woman" isn't a lesser term, or a definition of a gender based on its opposition to another gender, but simply a compound word that combines "wife" with "human." You may be right that the word "werman" didn't exist, as I see with further research that some have claimed it to be a myth. I stand corrected if that's the case. (I did spend a few months studying Old English in college, but that was long ago).
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