Wer and Wyf, Man and Woman

Wer and Wyf, Man and Woman Wer and Wyf, Man and Woman Wer and Wyf, Man and Woman By Maeve Maddox In Old English, the word man had the meaning of â€Å"human being† or â€Å"person,† male or female. Note: Old English is the earliest form of English, brought to Great Britain in the fifth century by Germanic settlers. The first literary works in Old English date from the seventh century. In OE, the word man occurs in proverbs in the sense of â€Å"one,† â€Å"a person† or â€Å"people†: NÄ“ sceal man tÃ…  Ç £r forht nÄ“ tÃ…  Ç £r fà ¦gen: A person shouldn’t be too soon fearful nor too soon glad The usual OE word for â€Å"an adult male person† was wer. Man didn’t start being used in that sense until late in the OE period (c. 1000). Wer continued into Middle English, but by the late thirteenth century had been replaced by man. Wer survives into modern English as the combining form seen in the first syllable of werewolf: â€Å"a person who, according to medieval superstition, is transformed or is capable of transforming himself at times into a wolf.† The general meaning of man to mean human person of either gender survives in modern English in such words as manslaughter and mankind. The latter is being superseded by the word humankind in the belief that the man- of mankind excludes women. Its fixed legal use will probably prevent manslaughter from being replaced by humanslaughter. The Old English word for a female person, married or unmarried, was wyf. The meaning â€Å"female spouse† developed within the OE period, but the general sense of woman, married or unmarried, continued. In the 18th century, one definition of wife was â€Å"a woman of humble rank or of low employment,† a sense that remains in the words fishwife and alewife. Used figuratively, the term fishwife has acquired the negative connotation of â€Å"a scurrilously abusive woman.† The sense of â€Å"women in general† is at work in the expression â€Å"old wives’ tale†: â€Å"an unlikely story told and believed by women a widely held or traditional belief now thought to be incorrect or erroneous.† For example, a very common  old wives  tale  is the admonition to feed a  cold  and starve a  fever. Note: The tale, not the women, is â€Å"old.† Inherent in this expression is the notion that women are more gullible than men. Perhaps we could coin the expression â€Å"old husbands’ tale† for the stereotypical notions that men pass on about women. For example, â€Å"Women lack intellect,† â€Å"women are more emotional and jealous than men,† â€Å"women are not suited to serve in public office,† â€Å"women lack courage,† etc. Husband, like wife, has meanings apart from married status. Meanings of husband include â€Å"tiller of the soil, manager of a household,† and â€Å"steward.† It’s interesting that today’s general word for â€Å"adult female person,† woman, originated when wyf (â€Å"female person†) was joined to man (â€Å"human being†) to produce the combination wyfman (â€Å"female human being†). The modern form woman developed from a plural of wyfman that did not include the /f/ sound or spelling: wimman. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What is the Difference Between "These" and "Those"?Yay, Hooray, Woo-hoo and Other AcclamationsWord Count and Book Length

Gratitude and Congratulations

Gratitude and Congratulations Gratitude and Congratulations Gratitude and Congratulations By Mark Nichol Gratitude and congratulations, along with some other words with the element grat and associated with giving thanks, are related. Such words, and a couple of disguised cognates, are listed and defined in this post. Gratitude, and the other words discussed here, derive from the Latin adjective gratus, meaning â€Å"pleasing† or â€Å"thankful.† Gratitude is the state of being thankful, and a synonym for thankful is grateful. The antonym of that word is ungrateful, but someone who withholds gratitude is an ingrate. Gratify, though stemming from the same origin, has a different sense; it means â€Å"give pleasure or satisfaction,† and, depending on context, it can have a positive or negative connotation. For example, the noun form in â€Å"instant gratification† refers critically to an undesirable personal or cultural trait associated with seeking short-term satisfaction to the detriment of more productive habits or pursuits. Similarly, though gratuitous originally meant simply â€Å"free,† that sense has largely been overtaken by the meanings â€Å"unearned† and â€Å"unwarranted,† as in a reference to gratuitous sex or violence in a film; the element or scene is not integral to the plot and is therefore considered exploitative. A gratuity, however, is always welcome: It is something given voluntarily. (Often, the word is simply employed as a formal alternative to tip in the context of rendering services.) Centuries ago, when one expressed pleasure in the achievements of another, one offered gratulation. However, that form was superseded by congratulation, and now it is customary to pluralize that word. (Congrats is a slang truncation.) Unfortunately, thanks to the punning exclamation â€Å"Congradulations!† in the context of graduation from school or college, seen on greeting cards and the like, congratulations is sometimes inadvertently misspelled. Grate, meaning â€Å"grill† or â€Å"scraper,† is unrelated, but grace, meaning â€Å"mercy,† â€Å"elegance,† and â€Å"virtue,† and the identical verb form, meaning â€Å"show favor,† are descended from gratus. Something exemplifying grace in the sense of â€Å"elegance† is graceful, while something lacking that quality is graceless. Disgrace is the loss of favor or honor, and something that brings (or should bring) shame to someone is disgraceful. Meanwhile, scapegrace, on the model of scapegoat, means â€Å"someone who falls out of favor with God.† Another disguised descendant of gratus, by way of French, is agree, meaning â€Å"give assent or consent† or â€Å"coincide.† Something agreed on is an agreement. Something is said to be agreeable when it is acceptable, in harmony with what is desired, or pleasing, and a person with a pleasing or positive disposition is agreeable. In all cases, the antonym is represented by attaching the prefix dis-. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 "Home" Idioms and Expressions75 Idioms and Expressions That Include â€Å"Break†When Is a Question Not a Question?