unwoman
Etymology
From un- + woman.
unwoman means A woman devoid of rights, recognition, or typical female characteristics; a female unperson. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
UNWOMAN — [Noun, Verb] (noun) A woman stripped of rights, recognition, or conventional female attributes; a female unperson. (verb) To deprive of feminine qualities or the status of womanhood. From the English prefix un- (expressing reversal or deprivation) + woman. Unlike “unsex” (which neuters gender identity broadly) or “dehumanize” (which annuls universal personhood), to unwoman is a precise, gendered excision. It is the cold click of a lock on a door she may no longer open, the official document that revises “mother” to “birthing parent,” and the mirrored glance that finds no familiar self looking back—the systematic reduction of a person to a ghost within a still-living body. To be unwomaned is to be made a ghost within your own skin, proving the most profound voids are carved by design.
noun
- A woman devoid of rights, recognition, or typical female characteristics; a female unperson.“By allowing herself and her unborn child to be executed, effectively she is permitting an abortion and by extension, becoming an “unwoman.””
verb
- To deprive of feminine qualities, or of the status of womanhood; to unsex.“‘[…] My love, so please you, shall requite
No woman, whether dark or bright,
Unwomaned if she be.’”