Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words

Linguistics may sound boring. But it’s far from it—just ask Nuttall, a University of Oxford teacher of the history of the English language and medieval literature. Like an explorer uncovering long-lost treasure, Nuttall trekked back into the first thousand years of the English language to understand how words relating to women have evolved, morphed, and grown (and sometimes disappeared) over time. The phrase lingua materna, which dates to the early 12th century, translates to “mother tongue,” and Nuttall’s deep dives explore many themes of women’s lives—from lust and motherhood, menstruation and puberty, nursing and care, female anatomy, and even the roots of naming male violence. Women’s words have long been affected by outdated ideas and back stories—heightened by traces of the sexism and patriarchy of the past. Body-based words such as “hysteria”—once considered a female ailment—morphed into “hysterical,” a word often used to justify women’s subordination in society. Even some highly taboo words had a place in Chaucer’s England, for example. The so-called women’s words of the past, alternately seen as quaint, quirky, or just plain incorrect, have impacted the way we speak today. The surprising etymologies will be both fascinating and eye-opening for today’s readers. While Nuttall’s discourse, at times, veers into the scholarly, the text is strewn with glorious moments of humor and thoughtful asides.