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From: amigo@iwlc6.UUCP (John Hobson)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Confused humans
Message-ID: <138@iwlc6.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Apr-84 16:39:19 EST
Article-I.D.: iwlc6.138
Posted: Mon Apr 23 16:39:19 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Apr-84 08:14:22 EST
References: <2027@ut-sally.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 44

Ron Hitchens, while musing over the origins of the word "wife", says:

>>   If
>>      wifeman = wi'man = woman
>>   why not
>>      husbandman = hu'man = human ??
>>
>>	What I figure is this:  Originally the word for a person
>>	was "man", the qualifiers "wife" and "husband" were used to
>>	specify which type a given individual was.  At least that
>>	was the intended structure.  But somewhere along the line
>>	the meanings of human and man got mixed up, probably during
>>	one of the periods when the Normans outlawed English and it
>>	had to survive underground.  Plus, of course, the patriarcal 
>>	nature of civilization tends to identify males as more
>>	complete people which would add to the confusion.  Plus
>>	English comes from German, in German the word "man"
>>	(pronounced mon) means an unspecified person, could be a holdover.

Nice try, Ron, but it won't wash.  The word "humanus" (-a, -um) is
perfectly good Latin and means (surprise, surprise) a human being.

"Husband" is from the Old English "husbonda", meaning the master of a
household, and derives from the Old Norse "hus" (a house) and "bondi"
(a householder).  This, along with the fact that in c.500 Europe,
a house generally meant a farmhouse, may help you understand why
farming is sometimes called husbandry.

Also, don't forget that while the German "Man" (which I always
heard pronounced with a very short "a" and the "n" almost
swallowed) does mean an unspecified person (the usual translation
is either "one" or "someone", such as "Man macht diese" -- "someone
does this", not to be confused with the number Ein), the word
"Mann" (which takes the masculine article "der") means a man, and 
is pronounced with a sslightly longer "a" and a very long, stressed
"n".  "Mann" is also the usual German word for a husband as in
"diese ist mein Mann?" -- "this is my husband".

Similarly, the word "Frau" is both a woman and the honorific for a
married woman.  
				John Hobson
				AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL
				ihnp4!iwlc6!amigo