man

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "man", -man, the man, and Man

Contents

English[edit]

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 Man (disambiguation) on Wikipedia

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Etymology[edit]

From Middle English man, from Old English mann (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“human being, man”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *man- (“man”) (compare also *men- (“mind”)). Cognate with West Frisian man, Dutch man, German Mann (“man”), Norwegian mann (“man”), Old Swedish maþer (“man”), Swedish man, Russian муж (muž, “male person”), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬱 (manuš), Sanskrit मनु (manu, “human being”).

The verb is from Middle English mannen, from Old English mannian, ġemannian (“to man, supply with men, populate, garrison”), from mann (“human being, man”). Cognate with Dutch mannen (“to man”), German mannen (“to man”), Swedish bemanna (“to man”), Icelandic manna (“to supply with men, man”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man (plural men)

  1. An adult male human.
    The show is especially popular with middle-aged men.
    • Shakespeare
      The king is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him as it doth to me.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter 1, The Purchase Price:
      “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
  2. (collective) All males collectively; mankind.
    • 2011, Eileen Gray and the Design of Sapphic Modernity: Staying In, page 109:
      Unsurprisingly, if modern man is a sort of camera, modern woman is a picture.
  3. (collective) All humans collectively; mankind, humankind, humanity. (Sometimes capitalized as Man.)
    • 1647, Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 10:
      How did God create man?
      God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
    • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, The Economist, volume 408, number 8845: 
      Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.
  4. An abstract person; a person of either gender, usually an adult. (See usage notes.)
    every man for himself
    • Bible, Rom. xii. 17
      Recompense to no man evil for evil.
    • Shakespeare
      A man cannot make him laugh.
    • Addison
      A man would expect to find some antiquities; but all they have to show of this nature is an old rostrum of a Roman ship.
  5. An adult male servant; also, a vassal; a subject.
    • Old proverb
      Like master, like man.
    • Blackstone
      The vassal, or tenant, kneeling, ungirt, uncovered, and holding up his hands between those of his lord, professed that he did become his man from that day forth, of life, limb, and earthly honour.
  6. A mensch; a person (especially a male) of strength, integrity, and honor.
  7. A piece or token used in board games such as chess.
  8. A person, usually male, with duties or skills associated with a specified thing. (Used as the last element of a compound.)
    I always wanted to be a guitar man on a road tour, but instead I’m a flag man on a road crew.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, The Celebrity:
      No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.
  9. A male who is extremely fond of or devoted to a specified type of thing. (Used as the last element of a compound.)
    Some people prefer apple pie, but me, I’m a cherry pie man.
  10. A husband (or sometimes a fiancé or boyfriend).
    • Book of Common Prayer
      I pronounce that they are man and wife.
    • Addison
      Every wife ought to answer for her man.
  11. (MLE, slang) Used to refer to oneself or one's group: I, we; construed in the third person.
    • 2011, Top Boy:
      Sully: If it weren’t for that snake ... Man wouldn’t even be in this mess right now.
  12. (anthropology, archaeology, paleontology) A member of the species Homo sapiens, the genus Homo, or the subtribe Hominina.
  13. A term of familiar address often implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste.
    Come on, man, we've no time to lose!

Usage notes[edit]

The most common modern sense of the word is “an adult male human”, not “a generic human” or “humankind”, which explains the awkwardness of the following sentence:
  • Man, like other mammals, breastfeeds his young.[1]
Nonsexist language advocates recommend the use of human, human being, humankind, or person, depending on context, instead of man.

Synonyms[edit]

See also[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from man (noun)

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

man (third-person singular simple present mans, present participle manning, simple past and past participle manned)

  1. (transitive) To supply with staff or crew (of either sex).
    The shipped was manned with a small crew.
  2. (transitive) To take up position in order to operate something.
    Man the machine guns!

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Interjection[edit]

man

  1. Used to place emphasis upon something or someone; sometimes, but not always, when actually addressing a man.
    Man, that was a great catch!
    (Geordie) Giv' is a bottle of dog man! [Dog here is referring to beer or brown ale.]

Quotations[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Nonsexist Language Guideline, the University of New Hampshire.

Statistics[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Afrikaans[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Dutch man.

Noun[edit]

man (plural manne)

  1. man

Albanian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Syncopated form of Gheg mand, from Proto-Albanian *manta.

Noun[edit]

man m (indefinite plural mana, definite singular mani, definite plural manat)

  1. mulberry, mulberry tree

Hyponyms[edit]

Bagirmi[edit]

Noun[edit]

man

  1. water

References[edit]

  • R. C. Stevenson, Bagirmi Grammar (1969)

Chinook Jargon[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English man.

Noun[edit]

man

  1. man

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Adjective[edit]

man

  1. male

Antonyms[edit]

Danish[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old Norse mǫn, from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“neck”).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /maːn/, [mæːˀn]

Noun[edit]

man c (singular definite manen, plural indefinite maner)

  1. mane (longer hair growth on back of neck of a horse)
Inflection[edit]
Inflection of man
common
gender		 Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative man manen maner manerne
genitive mans manens maners manernes
Related terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old Norse menn, plural form of maðr (“man”). Transition to pronoun by German influence.

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

man (indefinite pronoun)

  1. you
  2. they, people
  3. we, one

Etymology 3[edit]

See mane.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /maːn/, [mæːˀn]

Verb[edit]

man

  1. Imperative of mane.

Dutch[edit]

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia nl

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Dutch man, from Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *man-. Cognate with English and West Frisian man, German Mann, Danish mand.

Noun[edit]

man m (plural mannen, diminutive mannetje n or manneke n)

also has Archaic plurals: lieden and lui
  1. man human male, either adult or age-irrespective
    De oude man en de zee.
    The Old Man and the Sea.
  2. husband, male spouse

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Faroese[edit]

Verb[edit]

man

  1. First and third-person singular present of munna
    I, he, she, it will / may

Conjugation[edit]

   Conjugation of munna
munna, v
number singular plural
person first second third all
Indicative eg tú hann / hon
tað		 vit, tit,
teir / tær / tey
tygum
Present man manst man munnu/munna
Past mundi mundi mundi mundu
Imperative tú tit
Present — — ! — — !
Infinitive munna
Pres. part. —
Past part. —
Supine munnað

Derived terms[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

man

  1. (colloquial) one, they (indefinite third-person singular pronoun)

Synonyms[edit]

Friulian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin manus.

Noun[edit]

man m (plural mans)

  1. hand

Galician[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin manus. Compare Catalan mà, French main, Italian mano, Occitan man, Portuguese mão, Romanian mână, Sardinian manu, Spanish mano.

Noun[edit]

man f (plural mans)

  1. (anatomy) hand

German[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the same source as Mann (“adult male”).[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

man

  1. (indefinite) one, they (indefinite third-person singular pronoun)
    was man sehen kann — what one can see
    • 2008, Frank Behmeta, Wenn ich die Augen öffne, page 55:
      Kann man es fühlen, wenn man schwanger ist?
      Can a person feel it when he is pregnant?

Usage notes[edit]

  • Because man derives from the word for a “man” (an adult male), its use, especially when writing about women, is considered sexist by some. Feminists have proposed alternating man and frau, or the generic words mensch or man*. Compare the use of she vs he in English to refer to someone whose gender is unknown.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Theo Stemmler: Wie das Eisbein ins Lexikon kam, page 15, ISBN 978-3-411-72291-4.

German Low German[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Saxon man, from Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *man-.

Conjunction[edit]

man

  1. (in many dialects, including Low Prussian) only; but

Synonyms[edit]

  • (in various dialects) avers, awer (and many variations thereof; for which, see those entries)
  • (in some dialects) bloots

Gothic[edit]

Romanization[edit]

man

  1. Romanization of 𐌼𐌰𐌽

Icelandic[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man n (genitive singular mans)

  1. (chiefly poetic) maiden

Declension[edit]

declension of man
n-s singular
indefinite definite
nominative man manið
accusative man manið
dative mani maninu
genitive mans mansins

Derived terms[edit]

Verb[edit]

man

  1. Past, first person of the verb of muna I remember
    Ég man ekki.
    I don't remember.
  2. Past, third person of the verb of muna he/she/it remembered
    Hann man hvað gerðist.
    He remembered what happened.

Japanese[edit]

Romanization[edit]

man

  1. Rōmaji reading of まん
  2. Rōmaji reading of マン

Kurdish[edit]

Verb[edit]

man

  1. to stay
  2. to remain

Ladin[edit]

Noun[edit]

man f (plural mans)

  1. hand

Latvian[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

man

  1. to me; dative singular form of es

Lithuanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

mán

  1. (first-person singular) dative form of aš.
    Duok man tą knygą.
    Give me that book.

Lojban[edit]

Rafsi[edit]

man

  1. rafsi of manku.

Mandarin[edit]

Romanization[edit]

man

  1. Nonstandard spelling of mān.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of mán.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of mǎn.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of màn.

Usage notes[edit]

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

man

  1. you
  2. one
  3. they
  4. people

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man

  1. mane (of a horse)

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Noun[edit]

man f (definite singular mana, indefinite plural maner, definite plural manene)

  1. mane (of a horse)

Occitan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin manus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man f (plural mans)

  1. hand

Old Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *man-. Compare Old Saxon man, Old High German man, Old Frisian man, mon, Old English mann, Old Norse maðr.

Noun[edit]

man m

  1. human, person
  2. man

Declension[edit]

Declension of man
Singular Plural
nominative man manna
accusative man manna
genitive mannis manno
dative manne mannon

Descendants[edit]

Old English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From mann.

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

man

  1. one, someone, they (often used to form the passive)

Etymology 2[edit]

Cognate with Old Saxon mēn, Old High German mein, Old Norse mein.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

mān n

  1. crime, sin, wickedness

Old High German[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *man-. Compare Old Saxon man, Old Dutch man, Old English mann, Old Frisian man, mon, Old Norse maðr, Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna).

Noun[edit]

man m

  1. man

Descendants[edit]

Old Saxon[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *man-. Compare Old English mann, Old Frisian man, mon, Old Dutch man, Old High German man, Old Norse maðr.

Noun[edit]

man m

  1. human, person
  2. man

Synonyms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • German Low German: Mann

Scottish Gaelic[edit]

Preposition[edit]

man

  1. Alternative form of mar.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Unlike mar, man does not lenite the following word.

Swedish[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old Swedish maþer, mander, from Old Norse maðr, from Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *man-.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man c

  1. a man (adult male human)
  2. a husband
  3. a member of a crew, workforce or (military) troop
    I äldre tider sa man att björnen ägde sju mans styrka men en mans vett.
    In older times, they said the bear has the strength of seven men but the sense of one man.
Declension[edit]
Declension of man 1, 2, 3
singular plural
Common indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative man mannen män männen
genitive mans mannens mäns männens
Declension of man 3
singular plural
Common indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative man mannen mannar, man mannarna
genitive mans mannens mannars, mans mannarnas

Pronoun[edit]

man c (accusative/dative en, plural ena, possesive ens, reflexive sig, possessive reflexive common sin, possessive reflexive neuter sitt, possessive reflexive plural sina)

  1. (indefinite) one, they; people in general
    vad man kan se
    what one can see
Declension[edit]
Swedish personal pronouns
subject object possessive
singular full full common neuter plural
1st person jag mig min mitt mina
2nd person du dig din ditt dina
3rd person masculine han honom hans
3rd person feminine hon henne hennes
3rd person common den den dess
3rd person neuter det det dess
3rd person indefinite man en ens
3rd person reflexive — sig sin sitt sina
plural
1st person vi oss vår vårt våra
2nd person ni er er ert era
3rd person de dem deras
3rd person reflexive — sig sin sitt sina

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old Norse mǫn, from Proto-Germanic *manō.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man c

  1. mane (of a horse or lion)
Declension[edit]
Declension of man
singular plural
Common indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative man manen manar manarna
genitive mans manens manars manarnas

Tok Pisin[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English man.

Noun[edit]

man

  1. man (adult male human)
    • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Genesis 2:5 (translation here):
      ...i no gat diwai na gras samting i kamap long graun yet, long wanem, em i no salim ren i kam daun yet. Na i no gat man bilong wokim gaden.

Adjective[edit]

man

  1. male


This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. Tok Pisin is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Torres Strait Creole[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English man.

Noun[edit]

man

  1. husband
  2. a married man
  3. any man

Venetian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Compare Italian mano

Noun[edit]

man f (invariable)

  1. hand

Volapük[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from English man (cf. Dutch: man, Swedish: man, Norwegian: mann, German: Mann, German Low German: Mann, Yiddish: מאַן (“man”)).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man (plural mans)

  1. man (adult male human)

Declension[edit]

declension of man
singular plural
nominative man mans
genitive mana manas
dative mane manes
accusative mani manis
predicative manu manus
vocative o man! o mans!

Coordinate terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from man

Welsh[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man ?

  1. place.

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
man fan unchanged unchanged

West Frisian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Frisian man, from Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *man-. Compare English and Dutch man, German Mann, Danish mand.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

man (plural men or manlju)

  1. man
  2. husband

Wik-Mungkan[edit]

Noun[edit]

man

  1. neck

Derived terms[edit]

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