A variant spelling or dialectal form of 'ben,' referring to the ben oil tree or its seeds.
Variant of 'ben' from Arabic/Hindi origins, sometimes spelled 'behn' in older English texts about Eastern plants and trade goods.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was the first English woman to earn a living as a writer—though spelled differently, her name shares roots with this word for an exotic Eastern plant, connecting literature and botanical discovery.
Aphra Behn (1640–1689) was a pioneering English playwright, poet, and novelist whose name became a marker of female literary authorship. Her historical erasure and recovery exemplifies how women writers' contributions were systematized out of literary canon.
When citing Behn or discussing her work, use her full name and credit her as a founding figure of English prose fiction and feminist theater, recognizing the institutional forces that obscured her legacy.
Aphra Behn was the first English woman to earn her living by writing, establishing a professional literary career a century before most women had access to publication. Her reclamation required deliberate archival recovery.
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