eldertongue

Old English · noun

wifmann

Normalised wīfmann

Part of speech
noun, masculine / feminine
Declension
strong consonant stem
IPA
/ˈwiːfˌmɑnn/
[ˈwiːvˌmɑn]
Syllables
ˈwiːf · ˌmɑnn (2 syllables)
Modern English
womanhandmaid

Meaning

  1. woman

    Hūru þæs ōþer þing wiston þā wīfmenn, þā hȳ on weġ cyrdon.

    The women, however, knew something else, so they turned back on their way.

    10th century, The Descent into Hell:

  2. female

  3. handmaid, female servant

Declension

Declension of wifmann
SingularPlural
Nominative wīfmannwīfmenn
Accusative wīfmannwīfmenn
Genitive wīfmanneswīfmanna
Dative wīfmennwīfmannum

All forms (5)

Etymology

From wīf + mann, literally “female person”. Compare wǣpnedmann (“man, a male”, literally “male person”), which wīfmann was often used alongside; cf. Icelandic karlmaður and kvenmaður.

Descendants

woman

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wifmann · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution