woman-child

noun

plural women-children

1

archaic : a female infant

2

: woman who has the qualities of a child : a childlike woman

By the time she did leave home in 1986 she was a drastically insecure 30-year-old woman-child who had never dated, never been in love, never had any real friends.

—Laura B. Randolph, Ebony, July 1992

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1515, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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