SPECIAL WORDS FOR SEX AND RELATIONSHIP 195 



related to volvere, to turn, roll about, perhaps even as 

 wip to weibon. 1 Finally, with regard to wif, three 

 Anglo-Saxon words may be noted, namely, wifping, 

 glossed coitus, wiflag, glossed fornicatio, and wifung, 

 matrimonium. It is clear from these that wif has no 

 special relation to matrimony, and that the attachment 

 of the monogamic relation to one of the words is a 

 purely arbitrary development. Indeed, the first word 

 seems to lead us again to the primitive vergaderung, the 

 conventus ad generandum of the old group-marriage. 

 We may, then, safely conclude that the term wife in no 

 way takes us back to primitive patriarchal institutions ; 

 it did not have its origin in an age of weaving or of 

 trembling brides, but it arose from a purely physiological 

 aspect of woman's sex-functions. 



(2) Turning to the corresponding male names, we 

 have as correlatives of wife, mann, htisbond, wirt, 

 Mswirt, gomo, charal, all glossed maritus, conjux. But 

 there is nothing philologically to mark the married man in 

 any of these, and, with the possible exception of charal, 

 they do not in any way mark man's sexual functions. 

 They denote man primarily as a human being, vir, mas, 

 or they refer to his domestic position or occupation. 

 Originally they refer to any man, 2 and only with the 

 development of a new social system have they been 

 specialised for the monogamic male mate. Another 

 series of words as correlatives to wife, namely, kone-man 



1 It is even possible that vagina may be related to the root vag, which appears 

 in vagus, and denotes swerving, wavering, wagging, notwithstanding the change 

 in the value of the vowel. 



2 Thus Msbond = Ms-b'Aand, the one living in the house. In Norway the 

 corresponding husmand has been specialised for the cottager, but never for the 

 male mate. 



