The word thus began as referring to a type of person, a woman-person,and not a type of man. Over time, the ‘f’ in ‘wif’ fell away and the resultwas a word we now pronounce as ‘wimmin.’ There was no ‘woman.’ Yet. Thesingular ‘woman,’ as opposed to the plural ‘women,’ came about in MiddleEnglish

evolution ofthe term “woman” reveals that the “wo” affix was not simply an addition to“man.” The linguist John McWhorter explained that “the word ‘woman’ didnot begin as a reference to a ‘wo-’ kind of man or male person. In Old English