Hic Mulier

The Latin title uses the word hic, the masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun jokingly applied to a feminine noun, to mean "this [manlike] woman".

The term Hic Mulier, used as a sexual insult, was introduced by a preacher named Thomas Adams in a pamphlet he published in 1615.

In 1620, he commanded his clergy to teach, "against the insolencie of our women, and their wearing of broad brimmed hats, pointed dublets, their hair cut short or shorn, and some of them stilettoes or poinards, and such other trinckets of like moment."

[1] Hic Mulier was followed quickly by the printing of the counterpoint Haec Vir, indicating the pair of pamphlets was likely intended by the bookseller to capitalize on controversy over the social role of women.

The author worries that dressing like a man leads a woman speaking out like men and essentially becoming male in outward form.