system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
&gt;Man in old English referred to mankind because man was the centre of the world to the exclusion of women.

"Man" was gender-neutral in Old English.  "Werman" was a male man and "wifman" was a female man.  Please don't make linguists cry like that.  They're sensitive people.
gpt
Technically speaking you are right. But that's not the gist of the comment I'm replying to. By the time man was used to refer to mankind, it was "male as default" that got it there and not "oh what's that gender neutral word from old English"