The English words female and male aren’t actually directly related (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

Despite the similarity, the words female and male actually have completely different roots. Female comes from Old French femelle, which comes from Latin femina. Male comes Old French masle, which comes from Latin mas. The reason they’re so similar is because people looked a the word male and the word femelle and decided that they must have come from the same word, and femelle was a misspelling. So they made it female to “fix” the spelling. Kind of how isle and island come from different places, but renaissance writers assumed that they did and therefore added a silent s to both words. Even though the word isle historically never had an s in it.

 

[Ahsoka]

Language tag:
@athenarose @LexieBoo @Nyaz @Dreamer_of_Songs @Nina @velvet @ChuuAntics @MyLovelyLove @alo @Chiara @eclipsoul @sick @Moguri

 

[Boyo]

I prefer femelle cuz why we need the male into the word female?

 

[ChiaraStar169]

I prefer femelle cuz why we need the male into the word female?

bc female without male won't get the family tree going very far lol this probably doesn't make an iota of sense, but there it is

 

[Selfmate]

but man and woman are right?

 

[Ahsoka]

but man and woman are right?

Yeah. There still seems to be some debate about specifics but it seems that most assume that woman is from wifmann, which was wif (female person) combined with Mann (meaning person). And then some say that man used to be wermann (male person) and Mann as in person, and then over time Mann came to mean specifically the male population. But either way they have shared etymology.

 

[dark_tranquility]

Ah latin what a web you weave

 

[Boyo]

bc female without male won't get the family tree going very far lol this probably doesn't make an iota of sense, but there it is

Etymology and family tree are not related things. Probably doesn’t make an iota of sense, but there it is.

 

[Ahsoka]

bc female without male won't get the family tree going very far lol this probably doesn't make an iota of sense, but there it is

The family tree also won’t go far without females, but males aren’t called lefemales or something, or even melles to be more in line with femelle. Not to mention how many other things are needed for the family tree to continue. Food, water, shelter, and so on are all completely necessary too in order to continue because a dead person can’t reproduce.

 

[RandAlThor]

nice!

 

[Moguri]

no way... another shocking revelation!