Entry · catalog no. 6210
womanish
/ /ˈwʊmənɪʃ/ /WUUM-uh-nish
adjective · south · 1900s
✓ Verified
1.
Of a girl: acting grown, bold, and knowing beyond her years.
“Sit down somewhere — you getting womanish.”
Origin & Attribution
A Black Southern word a mother throws at a daughter reaching past childhood: You acting womanish. Alice Walker built her definition of womanist on it in In Search of Our Mothers'' Gardens (1983) — a Black feminist, from the black folk expression, You acting womanish, meaning grown-up, willful, wanting to know more than is thought good for you.
traditional
Long current in Black Southern speech: You acting womanish
1983
Alice Walker defines womanist from the phrase
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
south · 1900s
Spoken by
the South
$WOMANIThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady126 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
45/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1900
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
+ Cite a sourceAlice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers'' Gardens — book · 1983
book
See also