The English word 'woman' is a contracted compound whose internal structure has been almost completely obscured by a millennium of phonological erosion. It descends from Old English 'wīfmann,' a transparent compound of 'wīf' (female, woman) and 'mann' (human being, person). Understanding this etymology requires understanding that Old English 'mann' was gender-neutral — it meant 'person,' not 'male' — so 'wīfmann' meant 'female-person,' a logical counterpart to 'wǣpnedmann' (literally 'weapon-person,' i.e., male person).
The first element, 'wīf,' is one of the oldest and most etymologically opaque words in Germanic. It survives in Modern English as 'wife,' but its original meaning was broader: simply 'woman' or 'female.' Proto-Germanic *wībą produced Old Norse 'víf,' Gothic *weib (unattested but inferred), and German 'Weib' (which now carries slightly pejorative connotations, unlike its English descendant). The further origin of *wībą is genuinely
The phonological evolution from 'wīfmann' to 'woman' proceeded through well-documented stages. First, the long vowel 'ī' in 'wīf' shortened in the compound (a common process when elements lose independent stress). Then the labial consonants 'f' and 'm' assimilated, turning 'wifmann' into 'wimmann.' By the twelfth century, Middle English scribes were writing
The plural 'women,' pronounced /ˈwɪm.ɪn/, preserves an even older phonological process called i-mutation (or umlaut). In Old English, the plural of 'mann' was 'menn,' with the back vowel fronted by a now-lost 'i' in the plural suffix — the same process that gives English the irregular plurals 'men,' 'feet,' 'geese,' 'teeth,' and 'mice.' In 'wīfmenn,' the i-mutation affected the first element too, changing 'wīf-' toward a fronted vowel. This is why the modern spelling of 'women' looks the same
The history of the word reflects broader shifts in English gender vocabulary. In Old English, the system was clear: 'mann' (person, any gender), 'wer' (adult male), 'wīf' (adult female). By the end of the Middle English period, 'wer' had vanished from everyday use (surviving only in 'werewolf'), 'mann/man' had absorbed the male-specific meaning, and 'wīfmann/woman' remained the only surviving compound. The system went from three terms to two, with 'man
The word 'midwife' preserves the original sense of 'wīf' as 'woman' — a midwife is literally a 'with-woman,' someone who is 'with' (mid) the birthing mother. The compound has nothing to do with 'middle' or the middle of anything; 'mid' here is the preposition 'with,' from Old English 'mid.'