Woman-child

arch. Pl. women-children. [WOMAN sb. 6 b.] A female child.

1558.  T. Watson, Seven Sacram., iii. 15. If it be a woman childe, than let the christener say thus, [etc.].

1560.  Becon, New Catech., VI. Wks. 1564, I. 537. It is expedient, y^t … scholes for women children be erected.

1625.  K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, IV. viii. 265. The women, by stealth, put a woman-child into the Princes cradle.

1765.  Blackstone, Comm., I. xvii. 449. The father might … assign a guardian to any woman-child under the age of sixteen.

1825.  J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 183. Such a temper—in one so young—… a child—a woman-child.

1866.  Lytton, Lost Tales Miletus, 108. An aged king, to whom the fates had spared But one fair woman-child.