Background
In Old English sources, the word "man" was gender-neutral, with a meaning similar to the modern English usage of "one" as an indefinite pronoun. The words wer and wyf were used to specify a man or woman where necessary, respectively. Combining them into wer-man or wyf-man expressed the concept of "any man" or "any woman." Some feminist authors have suggested that against the background of a patriarchal social and legal system, wer-man was simplified to man while wyf-man developed into woman. Feminist writers have suggested that the less prejudicial usage of the Old English sources reflects more egalitarian notions of gender at the time.
Read more about this topic: Womyn
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