womyn

English

Alternative forms

• see the list in the lemma, woman

Etymology

From woman and women; respelled so as not to contain the word man/men. Compare myn.

Noun

womyn (plural womyn or wymyn)

1. (very rare, nonstandard) Feminist spelling of woman
   • 1980, Susan J Wolfe, Julia Penelope, The coming out stories

     Summoning all my courage, I touched and kissed a womyn for the first time. I cannot describe what I felt at that moment.

   • 2004, Misty Marie, I Too was a Child...

     I dug with my bare hands through the bullshit where beneath I discovered a womyn. She was an incredibly angry womyn, but a womyn nonetheless.

2. (very rare, nonstandard) Feminist spelling of women
   • 1983, Anita Cornwell, Black Lesbian in White America‎:

     And I'm sure you know that so many straight womyn are so miserable that "going to the shrink" has become their major occupation, if they can afford it.

   • 1995, Sol Steinmetz, "Womyn: The Evidence," American Speech, vol. 70, no. 4, p. 430,

     Since the publication of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary (RHWCD) in the spring of 1991, no single dictionary entry has been the subject of more discussion, criticism, and controversy than the entry womyn (an alternative spelling of women).

Derived terms

• womynhood
• womynkind
• womynly
• womyn's land