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by ultraluminous 2670 days ago
Genuine question and not some MRA trolling, but how is that demeaning? How would the etymology of English pronouns would be demeaning to anyone?
2 comments

The etymology of "woman" is very demeaning. It literally means "wife of man" or "servant".

https://www.etymonline.com/word/woman

> The etymology of "woman" is very demeaning. It literally means "wife of man" or "servant".

Your own source disagrees with you; while it does say that it came from a word formed from “wif” plus “man”, “wif” didn't mean what “wife” means now but what ”woman” means now, and “man” meant what “person” means now (which is among the current meanings of “man”, too.)

The literal meaning of the compound is “woman person”. It's true that the compound “wifman” was used both for “woman” and “female servant”, but it's worth noting that the modern English word “man” includes among its meanings (and has for centuries) both “male person” and “male servant” (the latter being most commonly used preceded by a possessive indicating whose male servant is being referred to), so that the old “wifman” was a pretty exact equivalent of the modern “man” ignoring the (semantic, not grammatical) gender neutral senses of the latter.

If you click the link for "man" it lists "servant" as one of the Old English meanings, so it stands to reason that a word consisting of the terms for "female" and "servant" would mean a "female servant". Remember that back in the day being a servant used to be the default for most people.
Seems like a thoughtful and helpful response to me, including a wiki link.