Mar
8th
Fri
8th
Happy International Women’s Day!
To celebrate, here’s a factlet about the English language:
The word female is not etymologically related to the word male.
Femele is first cited in 1350 in the OED, and although male was first cited around the same time it was written maal, masle, madle or mawl in Middle English. They came to English from completely different Middle French words, and have eventually converged in terms of pronunciation and spelling.
(via laviefantasque)