A woman is a female human, in contrast to an adult male, who is a man.

The term woman (irregular plural: women) is usually used for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. However, the term is also sometimes used for a female human regardless of age, as in phrases like "women's rights".

Etymology

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The English term "man" (from Proto-Germanic mannaz "man, person") and words derived therefrom can designate any or even all of the human race regardless of their gender or age. This is indeed the oldest usage of "man". In Old English the words wer and wyf (also wæpman and wifman) were what was used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, and "man" was gender neutral. In Middle English man displaced wer as term for "male human", whilst wyfman (which eventually evolved into woman) was retained for "female human". "Man" does continue to carry its original sense of "Human" however, resulting in an asymmetry sometimes criticized as sexist. ^* (See also Womyn.) The symbol for the planet Venus is the sign also known in biology for the female sex: a stylized representation of the goddess Venus's hand mirror: a circle with a small cross underneath (Unicode: ♀). The Venus symbol also represented femininity, and in ancient alchemy stood for copper. Alchemists constructed the symbol from a circle (representing spirit) above a cross (representing matter).

Terminology

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The English language's original word for "woman" was Old English wīf, akin to German Weib; it later became the modern word "wife." The modern word "woman" etymologically derives from wīfmann, with the addition of mann, "person", from Germanic mannaz. This formation is peculiar to English. The equivalents for "man" in Old English were wer (a cognate of Latin vir, "man") and wǣpnedmann, literally "weaponed person". As previously mentioned, the term man continues to carry its original sense of "Human", though this usage results in an asymmetry which is sometimes criticized as sexist. The word girl originally meant "young person of either sex"; it was only around the beginning of the 16th century that it came to mean specifically a female child. Nowadays girl is also often used colloquially to refer to a young or unmarried woman. Since the early 1970s, feminists have challenged such usage, and today, using the word in the workplace (as in office girl) is typically considered inappropriate in the United States and United Kingdom because it implies a view of women as infantile. The use remains commonplace in several other English-speaking countries. Conversely, in certain non-Western cultures which link family honor with female virginity, the word girl is still used to refer to a never-married woman; in this sense it is used in a fashion roughly analogous to the obsolete English maid or maiden. Referring to an unmarried female as woman can, in such a culture, imply that she is sexually experienced, which would be an insult to her family. In more informal settings, the use of girl to refer to an adult female is also common practice in certain usage (such as girls' night out), even among elderly women. In this sense, girl may be considered to be the analogue to the British word bloke for a man. Some regard non-parallel usages, such as men and girls, as sexist. A number of other derogatory terms for women are also in common usage. There are various words used to refer to the quality of being a woman. The term "womanhood" merely means the state of being a woman; "femininity" is used to refer to a set of supposedly typical female qualities associated with a certain attitude to gender roles; "womanliness" is like "femininity", but is usually associated with a different view of gender roles; "femaleness" is a general term, but is often used as shorthand for "human femaleness"; "distaff" is an archaic adjective derived from women's conventional role as a spinner, now used only as a deliberate archaism; "muliebrity" is a "neologism" (derived from the Latin) meant to provide a female counterpart of "virility", but used very loosely, sometimes to mean merely "womanhood", sometimes "femininity", and sometimes even as a collective term for women.

More on [ Woman ]

BBC News | UK | World Edition

Pressure for windfall tax mounts
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:18:57 -0000
The TUC renews its demands for windfall tax on energy company profits, as pressure mounts on the government to help the poor.
North England hit by flash floods
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:27:35 -0000
People in north east England and southern Scotland are preparing for possible flash floods after a teenage girl was killed in Wales.
Mansion fire man's mother's shock
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:22:08 -0000
The mother of a man thought to have killed his family and torched his mansion before killing himself tells of her shock.
Credit crunch 'to last into 2010'
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 08:21:55 -0000
The credit crunch is likely to last another 18 months, the head of the UK's largest mortgage provider warns.
Alert as bomb note found on plane
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:20:52 -0000
A security alert is sparked in Dublin airport after a bomb warning is found scrawled on a paper towel in a plane toilet.
Financial abuse of elderly 'huge'
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:59:17 -0000
Thousands of elderly people are having their life savings, possessions and homes stolen by family members, a charity says.

The Economist: Britain

Titian in Britain: Exit, unfunded?
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
The fate of two Old Masters reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the laws governing the sale of artPAINTING, said Ambrose Bierce, is “the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic”. In Titian’s case, the critics have purred with enthusiasm. Lucian Freud hailed the two paintings offered for sale by the Duke of Sutherland, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto, as “simply the most beautiful pictures in the world”. And the Bridgewater Collection to which they belong is widely regarded as the world’s most important private collection of Old Masters.Yet keeping the paintings in the country will be a struggle. Although the duke is offering the Titians for much less than their market price, the National Galleries in England and Scotland still have to find GBP100m—almost five times the highest amount ever raised to keep art in Britain. And Britain’s notoriously liberal art-export laws do not provide much of a safety net. Between 1995 and 2005, 211 works of art totalling GBP274m in value were judged pre-eminent and worth keeping; yet money could be raised to hang on to only GBP105m-worth of them. ...
Faiths and schools: Religious rights and wrongs
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
A campaign to loosen the grip of the godly on state educationIN BRITAIN, a largely secular country where churches retain their historic role in education, there is little agreement about the place of religion in schools. Some fret that schools for children of a particular faith foster segregation; others cite parents’ right to educate their offspring as they see fit, adding that religious schools outperform secular ones (though opponents say that is because richer children go to them). Such rows tend to entrench attitudes, rather than lead to resolution.Now campaigners, both godly and godless, are trying to change that. September 1st saw the launch of Accord, a coalition of Christians, Jews, humanists, secularists and teachers who hope to sidestep fruitless rows about whether religions should run schools and instead get them to do it more fairly. They take issue with schools favouring children of their own faith in admissions: “Churches should be championing social justice and equality for all in education, not privileging their own,” says the Rev Christopher Rowland of Accord. And they want to stop schools reserving jobs for co-religionists and those who follow church teachings in their private lives. ...
The City of London: Defying augury
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
Can the stock exchange and the City see off the competition?AS THE British economy heads straight for the doldrums, the City is struggling too. Recent moves by the London Stock Exchange designed to see off encroaching rivals may cost the LSE custom rather than increase it. And even if the 300-year-old market can change its ways, the financial centre it buttresses may well be shaky. The signs are not good.This week the LSE slashed its trading fees to match those of electronic trading platforms (known as MTFs), and said it would allow ultra-fast computerised traders to put their machines close to the LSE’s own computers. This will save the increasingly important program traders precious nanoseconds between sending an order and executing the trade. In July the stock exchange struck a deal with Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, to form Baikal, a so-called “dark pool” that allows high-volume trades to be executed bit-by-bit off-exchange and out of the public eye—that is, in competition with the LSE itself. The LSE still has a near-monopoly in listing stocks and providing price data, but increasing volumes are being traded on electronic platforms. Chi-X, launched last year, already has 15% of London’s share-trading volume. Other rivals are queuing up. ...
The economy: Home's where the hurt is
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
There have been far worse times for the economy but few for a chancellorIT WAS, perhaps, frustration at his own helplessness that prompted Alistair Darling’s dire prognosis. The chancellor of the exchequer told the Guardian, in an interview reported on August 30th, that economic times were “arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years”. His remarks raised fears of a harder economic landing for Britain than predicted and helped push sterling to new lows against the euro. His slip may have had more to do with his own anxieties (see article) than with the fate of the economy.Only the terminally gloomy expect a downturn to match the deep recession of the early 1990s, or a repeat of the grim 1970s. Yet Mr Darling had a point, even if he made it clumsily. It is rare to be hit by so many problems in such a short space of time. A spike in the cost of oil and food has poked a big hole in consumers’ pockets, leaving less money for other spending. Meanwhile the banking crisis has cut the supply of credit, hastening a collapse in the housing market. ...
The army in Afghanistan: Dam difficult
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
Britain scores a military success. But it will take much more to beat the TalibanTHE earthen wall holding back the turquoise lake at Kajaki has stood as a rebuke to British forces for more than two years. Work on refurbishing its hydroelectric power station all but stopped when British and other NATO troops arrived in southern Afghanistan in 2006, reigniting the war with the Taliban.More than two seasons of inconclusive fighting, and the death of more than 100 British soldiers, have failed to secure southern Afghanistan. If anything, the Taliban have become bolder, staging more ambitious attacks and extending the insurgency to the gates of Kabul. As the Americans have reinforced understrength British forces in Helmand, relations between the allies have become tetchy. The Afghan government, too, has been critical of Western troops for killing Afghan civilians. ...
Gordon Brown's Scotland: Backyard blues
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
The prime minister’s native land is no longer his redoubtNOT only is Gordon Brown leading a country the OECD claims is about to enter recession; he also flew north on September 4th to find the part of it he calls home in revolt. Chief among the prime minister’s difficulties in Scotland is a resurgent Scottish National Party (SNP), which is expected to win a parliamentary by-election in the Labour-held seat of Glenrothes. The contest, which was prompted by the death of Labour MP John MacDougall in August, is unlikely to take place before late October. The SNP holds the equivalent seat in the Scottish Parliament and needs a 14.5% swing, less than the 22% it secured when it snagged Glasgow East from Labour in a by-election in July, in order to send an MP to Westminster. ...

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