-10

We know “misogynist” is the word that we use for "a man who hates women”.

Do we have any single word for “a woman who hates men”?

Improve this question
10
  • 3
    Hi, Kalyana. Welcome to the English Language and Usage Stack Exchange. I appreciate the time you've taken to type out this question, but you should know that members of this community will generally expect that a certain minimum of investigation be conducted before a question is asked. As you'll notice, a Google search for the term you want a word for has "misandry" as its top result. If you are new to learning English, please consider whether your questions might be better suited for English Language Learners.
    – Tyler James Young
    Oct 5, 2013 at 6:38
  • @AndrewGrimm OP has been told all this before and continues to ask questions that show absolutely zero research effort, so I thought it might be time for shorthand. It is my sincere hope that my long-form comment will better serve posterity. I should probably add as a disclaimer that some of my initial reaction may have been due to the fact that the only reason I can think of for someone to post this question here is to seek implicit support (via unimpugnable dog-whistle naiveté) for a narrative that I happen to believe is harmful to all people.
    – Tyler James Young
    Oct 5, 2013 at 7:22
  • 4
    Misogyny is not exclusive to men. A woman who hates women is also a misogynist. Likewise, both men and women who hate men are misandrists.
    – Christoffer Hammarström
    Oct 5, 2013 at 12:53
  • 1
    -1 because you have already posted this question. You have your answer.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Dec 22, 2013 at 8:13
  • 1
    “Women hate men” is a sentence. What makes you think there should be a single word for that? Just like there isn't a single word for “my brother got engaged last week”, there isn't one for this.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Dec 22, 2013 at 10:47

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
6

Misandry is the equivalent term.

According to Wikipedia, the "mis" bit refers to hatred, and the "andry" bit refers to men.

Someone who engages in misandry is a misandrist.

Improve this answer
6
  • OP seems to be looking for a female misandrist.
    – user49727
    Oct 5, 2013 at 9:57
  • 3
    @user49727 it's assumed that a misandrist is female. A male misandrist would probably have its own term, like "self-hating man".
    – Andrew Grimm
    Oct 5, 2013 at 11:51
  • 1
    I would not make that assumption in these pomosexual times :))
    – user49727
    Oct 5, 2013 at 12:49
  • 6
    @WayfaringStranger, it would also be a most peculiar formation. The -trix suffix is the feminine form in Latin for the agent nouns that in the masculine end in -tor. These are quite different from the Greek agent nouns in -της, which is what underlies the ‘-ist’ suffix. The feminine form of a -της agent noun would simply be -τη, which would also in Latin become -ista and in English ‘-ist’. If the noun in English had been a ‘misandritor’, a feminine ‘misandritrix’ would make sense; but for ‘misandrist’, it doesn’t really.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Oct 5, 2013 at 14:24
  • 1
    @Wayfaring_Stranger the reason it's not in a dictionary is because it's not a word.
    – J A Terroba
    Aug 7, 2015 at 19:07
4

The Oxford dictionary:

A woman who hates men can be described as a misandrist, and the corresponding noun is misandry.

Women who hate men are misandrists, as men who hate women are misogynists.

Improve this answer
3
  • -1 The dictionary, sadly, says nothing of the hater's own gender, though. The OP's question is not about 'women who hate men' even, it's about the phenomenon where 'women hate men'. (At least the way the Q is framed.)
    – Kris
    Dec 22, 2013 at 5:26
  • 4
    @Kris - if you understand OP's question, why don't you post an answer and help us all to learn? Your link is exactly the same as my answer, so I would also appreciate your illumination on the subject.
    – anongoodnurse
    Dec 22, 2013 at 6:42
  • 1
    Yes. That's the reason mine is a comment, not an answer. If I had found anything better, I'd definitely have posted an answer, which is what one ought to do.
    – Kris
    Dec 22, 2013 at 6:44
2

One who hates men is a "Misandrist". But a "Misandrist" can be male or female.

The "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" controversy in December 2003 was based on misandry.

The word "Circe" can be used for women who hate men. In a 1942 book by Dr. Wilfred Funk & Norman Lewis, 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary, the word circe stands for women whose greatest pleasure comes from luring men to their destruction. In Greek mythology, Circe transformed her enemies into animals and she was exiled to the solitary island of Aeaea for ending the life of her husband, the prince of Colchis.

Improve this answer
0

The only terms that I think apply are female sexist or female chauvinist. Any other words that could be taken to refer to a female misandrist have been usurped and have strong clinical and/or behavioural denotations.

Some have gone so far as to call them female chauvinist pigs

Improve this answer
0
0

A woman who hates men is a man-hater.

Like misandrist, however, the definition isn't confined strictly to women who hate men.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.