Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WOM-AN, n. [plur. Women. a compound of womb and man. It is the same word as L. fœmina; the Latin's writing f for w. The plural as written, seems to be womb-men. But we pronounce it wimen, and so it ought to be written, for it is from the Saxon wifman, wife-man.]

1. The female of the human race, grown to adult years. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman. – Gen. ii. Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible. – Shak. We see every day women perish with infamy, by having been too wiling to set their beauty to show. – Rambler. I have observed among all nations that the women ornament themselves more than the men; that wherever found, they are the same kind, civil, obliging, humane, tender beings, inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest. – Ledyard.
2. A female attendant or servant. – Shak.