Home › Words › H › headswomanheadswomanheadswoman means A female headsman; a female executioner that carries out executions by decapitation.EtymologyFrom head + -s- + -woman.nounA female headsman; a female executioner that carries out executions by decapitation.(obsolete) A midwife.e.g.“HEADSWOMAN, s. a midwife. It would be presumptuous to pry into obstetric mysteries, to discover the origin or propriety of this denomination.” — 1830, Robert Forby, The Vocabulary of East Anglia, volume II, London: J. B. Nichols and Son, page 154:Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).