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Scorpio 17: A woman the father of her own child

As noted several t imes in this volume,

t h e no u n woman has more than one or igin.

The word i tsel f descends from the Indo-

E u r o p e a n ( I E ) r o o t   ghwibh- which means

b o t h “s h am e” and “pu d end a . ” 1 Two other

words are derived from this root  —wife 

a nd h ussy  ( a f e m a l e a d u l t e r e r ) . Th e n t h e r e

is the IE root   gwen- m eans “w o m an” 2 and

which gives r ise to the pref ix  gyne-  a nd

related words such as such as  gynecology ,

q ueen  , a nd zenana , “ the part of a house in

Asian countr ies reserved for the women of  

t h e h o u s eh o l d . ”  

The word father descends from the IE root   peter- which means

“ f at h er . ” Paronyms include  padre, pater , pate rnal , patrician, patri mony,

  patron, pere, expatriate, goombah, perpetrate, patriot , al lopatric ,

eupatrid, patriarch, a nd sympatric .3 

 The word own descends from the IE root   aik-1  which means “to be

m as t er o f , po s s es s . ” 4 I ts paronyms include the words ought , owner ,

fraught , freight , a nd t h e I nd i a n E l e p h a nt G o d Gan esh  which mean s “he

rules over .”  

The word chi ld d e s c e nd s f r o m t h e O l d E ng l i s h c i l d  meaning “chi ld ,

infant” and more remotely from the Gothic ki lpei   m eani ng “w o m b ” and

t h e D a ni s h kuld  meaning “chi ldren of the same marriage.” 5 

THEMES: First ly there is the TRI-UNITY t h a t f o r m s t h e ba s i s o f  

reproduction —a woman , a father , a nd t h e i r chi ld . But gender and the

1 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, p. 322 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, p. 34

3 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, p. 67

4 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, p. 1

5 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=child

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roles don’t match up perfect ly here. From the root   ghwibh- we have the

keyword woman and two female roles or archetypes —wife (good) and

h u s s y ( ba d ) . Fr o m gwen- we have a third — t he q ueen  , t h e f e m a l e

authori ty f igure. However , in the root   peter- we have father and a

variety of male authori ty f igures , but not husband. Perhaps we have

 paternity  without marriage. And in the word own we have associated

i d e a s o f o w ne r s h i p , r u l e , a nd s u p e r i o r i t y—“he rules over .”  

Th e n w e h a v e chi ld  which descends from a root which means “chi ldren

o f t h e s am e m ar r i ag e” and y et w e h av e o nl y h al f o f a m ar r i ag e— p a t e r ni t y

bu t no t h u s ba nd i ng . A nd t h e r e m a y be a n e l e m e nt o f s h a m e c o nc e r ni ng

t h i s s t a t e o f a f f a i r s be c a u s e t h e w o r d woman descends from a root that  

m e a ns “shame.”  

I t i s a lso notable that three words deal with the female reproductive

o r g a ns . Th e r o o t  gwhibh - also means “pudenda” , the external female

genital ia . The root of the word chi ld  m eans “w o m b ” and o ne o f t h e

derivat ives of the root   gwen - i s  gynecology . Ta ke n t o g e t h e r t h e r e m a y

e v e n be qu e s t i o ns no t o nl y o f   paternity —whether i t i s his own —but 

more importantly of conception, i .e . whether the chi ld w a s c o nc e i v e d by

the tradit ional means.