Forms and etym.: see WOMAN sb. and -HOOD.
1. The state or condition of being a woman.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 283. Alle here lymes so wel answerynge Weren to womanhode.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 545. She…, contrarie to Gods lawe, and the honest estate of womanhood, was clothed in mans apparell.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. ii. 220. May we with the warrant of womanhood … pursue him with any further reuenge?
1823. Byron, Juan, IX. lxxi. Her womanhood In its meridian.
1859. Tennyson, Marr. Geraint, 176. She … with all grace Of womanhood and queenhood, answer’d him.
1860. Hawthorne, Marble Faun, v. Her first conception of the stern Jewess had … been that of perfect womanhood.
b. The state of being a grown woman; the period of life succeeding to girlhood.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 470. Si appareant in ea signa pubertatis, if the signes of her womanhood appeared.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 534, ¶ 1. This has been my State, till I came toward Years of Womanhood.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 227. Misses … assume the dress Of womanhood.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xlvii. The change from childhood to womanhood.
1893. Crockett, Stickit Minister, 40. Janet grew to womanhood without a sweetheart.
(b) attrib. in womanhood suffrage, formerly freq. used (after MANHOOD 7) for woman-suffrage (WOMAN sb. 7).
1892. Daily News, 28 April, 3/2. The member for Bury drew a picture of eleven million women voting and ten million men under a future system of manhood and womanhood suffrage.
2. The disposition, character or qualities natural to a woman or womankind; womanliness.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1041, Dido. If that god … Wolde han a loue for beaute & goodnesse And womanhod [v.r. womanhede] & trouthe.
1552. Huloet, Womanhode, muliebritas.
1590. Greene, Never too late, I. (1600), E 2. Courage is knowne in extremities, womanhood in distresse.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. iii. 125. There’s neyther Faith, Truth, nor Woman-hood in me else.
1621. Brathwait, Nat. Embassie, 160. To transgresse the bounds of womanhood.
1755. Johnson, Womanhood, Womanhead, the character and collective qualities of a woman. Obsolete.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxxiii. Miss Brass’s maiden modesty and gentle womanhood.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. viii. 255. My mother … had sympathy with every passion of true womanhood.
3. Women collectively, womankind.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 992. Maydenly demure, Of womanhode the lure.
1718. Freethinker, No. 39. They contribute to make this kind of Womanhood more universal, than it would otherwise be.
1858. Mrs. Craik, Woman’s Th. about Women, 71. How lessen the infinite wrongs, errors, and sufferings of this mass of womanhood.
1889. Skrine, Mem. E. Thring, 203. Uppingham womanhood must next be taught to cook.
