待在裡面的狀態：身分與階段
容器的第一種讀法：重點在「處於這個狀態」。
noun · B2
The state of being a woman — either as opposed to being a man, or as the stage of life a girl enters when she grows up.
身為女人；長大成人
核心畫面
You can think of -hood as a container that holds people of one kind. Sometimes what matters is the state of being inside it — childhood, . Sometimes what matters is everyone inside it taken together — a neighbourhood is the neighbours as one body. Womanhood opens both ways: the state of being a woman, and the women as a whole. A third use looks at what has been packed into the container — the qualities people expect a woman to have once she is in it.
-hood 可以想成一個裝人的容器。有時候重點是「待在裡面的那個狀態」，像 childhood（童年）、mother…更多收起
-hood 可以想成一個裝人的容器。有時候重點是「待在裡面的那個狀態」，像 childhood（童年）、motherhood（當媽媽）。有時候重點是「裡面的人合起來的一群」，像 neighbourhood（街坊）就是鄰居們。womanhood 兩邊都開：既可以是身為女人的狀態，也可以是女性全體。還有第三種用法，看的是這個容器被裝了什麼——社會覺得進到裡面就該有的那些樣子。From the word’s history
From Middle English womanhoode (variants wommanhod, whomanhode), by surface analysis woman + -hood — the container is right there in the spelling.
來自中古英語 womanhoode，拆開來就是 woman 加 -hood。容器的畫面直接寫在字面上。
Wiktionary 'womanhood' etymology supplied in this packet (From Middle English womanhoode... By surface analysis, woman + -hood).
Two branches
裡面的人合起來：女性全體
容器的第二種讀法：重點在「裡面的人合成一群」，跟 neighbourhood 走同一條路。
noun · C1
Women as one whole group, especially all the women of a particular country, place or community.
女性全體