The Germanic word developed into Old English '. In Old English, the word still primarily meant "person" or "human," and was used for men, women, and children alike. The sense "adult male" was very rare, at least in the written language. That meaning is not recorded at all until about the year 1000, over a hundred years after the writings of Alfred the Great and perhaps nearly three centuries after "Beowulf." Instead, the usual Old English word for an adult male was ', which survives today only in the compound "werewolf" (from Old English "", literally "man-wolf").