Origin and history of womankind

"class, sort, variety," from Old English gecynd "kind, nature, race," related to cynn "family" (see kin), from Proto-Germanic *kundjaz "family, race," from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget," with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.

Ælfric's rendition of "the Book of Genesis" into Old English came out gecyndboc. The prefix disappeared 1150-1250. No exact cognates beyond English, but it corresponds to adjective endings such as Goth -kunds, Old High German -kund. Also in English as a suffix (mankind, etc., also compare godcund "divine"). Other earlier, now obsolete, senses included "character, quality derived from birth" and "manner or way natural or proper to anyone."

Phrase a kind of (1590s) indicating something like or similar to something else led to the colloquial extension as adverb (1804) in phrases such as kind of stupid "a kind of stupid (person), (one) not far from stupidity." However "good usage" once condemned as inaccurate the use as an adjective as in our kind of people, some kind of joke. All kinds is Old English alles cynnes, in Middle English sometimes contracted to alkins.

"adult female human," Middle English womman, from late Old English wimman, wiman (plural wimmen), literally "woman-man," an alteration of earlier wifman (plural wifmen) "woman; female servant" (8c.). This is a compound of wif, the older word for "woman" (see wife) + man in the sense of "human being" (see man (n.)).

It is notable that it was thought necessary to join wif, a neuter noun, representing a female person, to man, a masc. noun representing either a male or female person, to form a word denoting a female person exclusively. [Century Dictionary]

 Compare Dutch vrouwmens "wife," literally "woman-man." The formation is peculiar to English and Dutch. In English it replaced wif and quean as "female human being," as in Jesus's answer to his mother, in Anglo-Saxon gospels la, wif, hwæt is me and þe? (John ii:4 "Woman, what have I to do with thee?").

The pronunciation altered in Middle English by the rounding influence of -w- (compare wood (n.), Old English wudu, earlier widu). The plural women retains the original vowel-sound. The spelling shift from wi- to wu- is attested by c. 1200, the scribal shift to wo- is by late 13c. (see come (v)). Century Dictionary (1891) suggested a spelling *womman "would be better," along with *woolf for wolf.

The meaning "wife," now largely restricted to U.S. dialectal use, is attested from mid-15c. In American English, lady is "In loose and especially polite usage, a woman" [Craigie, "Dictionary of American English"]. This peculiarity was commented upon by English travelers; in the U.S. the custom was considered especially Southern, but the English regarded it simply as American.

This noble word [woman], spirit-stirring as it passes over English ears, is in America banished, and 'ladies' and 'females' substituted; the one to English taste mawkish and vulgar; the other indistinctive and gross. The effect is odd. [Harriet Martineau, 1837]

Woman-hater "misogynist, one with an aversion to women generally," is from c. 1600. Women's work, that considered appropriate to women, is from 1660s.

Woman suffrage, women's suffrage is by 1867, when it was an issue in U.S. state elections. Women's movement is by 1902 (woman movement is by 1883). Women's liberation is attested by 1956 in communist writings; women's rights is from 1840, with an isolated example in 1630s. Womanism is by 1863.

The woman question "controversy over women's rights" is by 1838.

Among the much vexed questions of the day, what is technically called the woman question has a strong prominence. Not only has it been talked upon and written upon, but acted upon in real life. The words, that seemed a wonder and abomination in the mouth of Mary Wolstoncraft, have now become familiar sounds. ["The Woman Question" in Western Messenger, November 1838]