Happy International Women’s Day!

superlinguo:

To celebrate, here’s a factlet about the English language: 

The word female is not etymologically related to the word male.

Femele is first cited in 1350 in the OED, and although male was first cited around the same time it was written maal, masle, madle or mawl in Middle English. They came to English from completely different Middle French words, and have eventually converged in terms of pronunciation and spelling.


Reblog / 364 notes.
Posted on March 8th at 10:12 AM
Tagged as: language. linguistics. etymology. English.
Reblogged from: cuimhnigh-i-gconai
Originally posted by: superlinguo
  1. anevilmuffin reblogged this from upwithwhichiwillnotput and added:
    WAIT WHAT I should have reblogged this sooner.
  2. bluestalking-fox reblogged this from vincentvangodot and added:
    It’s no longer INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY but every day is a day to learn shit and be less of a misogynistic pissant. Yay...
  3. moeoftoe reblogged this from huntswoman
  4. huntswoman reblogged this from superlinguo
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  7. hauteproportions reblogged this from cuntcastle and added:
    But just for the record, we are still made from Adam’s rib. Just to be clear
  8. blasphemous-bones reblogged this from bummybumbum
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  13. cuntcastle reblogged this from bummybumbum
  14. dashielsheen reblogged this from roseamer
  15. roseamer reblogged this from superlinguo and added:
    It shows in the french language : mâle / femelle, masculin / féminin that clearly do not share the same root, and in the...
  16. bummybumbum reblogged this from hotcauseimfly
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