The state or condition of being flesh or having a physical body; embodied existence.
From 'flesh' plus '-hood,' a suffix from Old English meaning 'state' or 'condition' (also 'rank' or 'order'). The same suffix appears in 'childhood,' 'manhood,' 'knighthood,' and 'priesthood.'
The '-hood' suffix is ancient and powerful—when medieval English speakers wanted to describe what it meant to BE something (not just DO something), they added '-hood' to make that status official!
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