Misogyny

The story of the word

Menander wrote a comedy called Μισογύνης, so the type was already a stock figure on the Athenian stage by 300 BC. English has misogyny from the 1650s, and for most of its life it named a private temperament; the sense of a social pattern rather than a personal quirk is recent. γυνή also gives gynaecology and androgynous, while μῖσος gives misanthrope and misogamy, hatred of marriage.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → English

First recorded

1650s