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When did "woman" become an adjective?

alfaniner

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alfaniner
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I've noticed this usage a lot lately. Usually used in the context of "a woman politician", "a woman athlete", etc, or as below in the picture. It just sounds really odd to me. The dictionary entries I checked still list it solely as a noun.

Is "female" as an adjective now considered gauche, or even a pejorative?
 

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alfaniner said:
I've noticed this usage a lot lately. Usually used in the context of "a woman politician", "a woman athlete", etc, or as below in the picture. It just sounds really odd to me. The dictionary entries I checked still list it solely as a noun.

Is "female" as an adjective now considered gauche, or even a pejorative?
Click to expand...

It has been for all of my life, and I'm not young, and I doubt it started in 1962.

I suppose it gives grammar teachers fits, but people have been using it that way for as long as I can remember.

"Female" seems a bit dehumanizing. It isn't genuinely offensive, but it just doesn't sound right.
 
IIRC, and it's been decades, unless "owned" is used as a noun in that case "Women" (or even "Female") would have to be an adverb. Modifying the verb "owned" in circumstance, manner or even cause.

To my understanding nouns can get used as adjectives or adverbs.

A quick review indicates that in this application "Women" or "Female" would be an adverbial objective indicating an answer to the adverb question 'Owned by who or whom?'



ETA:

Well, I guess that's one way to objectify "Women".
 
Last edited:
It's an attributive noun, as in "ice cream" or "stage actor". Tons of examples of this in English.
 
The Man said:
IIRC, and it's been decades, unless "owned" is used as a noun in that case "Woman" (or even "Female") would have to be an adverb. Modifying the verb "owned" in circumstance, manner or even cause.

To my understanding nouns can get used as adjectives or adverbs.

A quick review indicates that in this application "Woman" or "Female" would be an adverbial objective indicating an answer to the adverb question 'Owned by who or whom?'



ETA:

Well, I guess that's one way to objectify "Women".
Click to expand...

Owned is the verb, Women is the noun. But I think it should be "woman owned", even of there are two or more women involved.
 
casebro said:
Owned is the verb, Women is the noun. But I think it should be "woman owned", even of there are two or more women involved.
Click to expand...


Right, "Owned" is a verb which means "Women" can't be an adjective or attributive noun as both of those modify nouns.
 
Elagabalus said:
Perhaps it is a simple declarative statement that this yogurt is in some way confounding (perhaps embarrassingly so) to women. :boxedin:


https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Owned
Click to expand...

Coincidentally, my wife made me get a tattoo saying "Woman Owned" soon after the vows. I pointed out that it didn't specify a particular woman. Well, my attorney did at the hearing. Now she is composing a sleeve of explanatory legalese
 
For what it's worth, when I was looking for examples of old references to similar usage, and settle on "girl flier", because that's what I came up with first, I did see a lot more "femal" references (i.e. "female athletes", references to Amelia Earhart as a "female pilot" or "female aviator") than I expected. While the use of "woman" as adjective, or as a compound noun if you prefer, does seem more common today than in the 100 year old newspapers I was reading.

As an aside, I remember, as a youth, hearing complaints about "woman drivers", but never about "female drivers". Ah, the good old days.
 
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