מן

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Arabic

Preposition

מן • (transliteration needed)

  1. Judeo-Arabic spelling of مِنْ (min, “from, of”)‎‎
    • c. 10th century, Saadia Gaon, Tafsir‎, Exodus 1:7:
      ובנו אסראיל אתׄמרו וסעו וכתׄרו ועטׄמו גׄדא גׄדא ואמתלי דׄלך אלבלד מנהם׃
      wabanū ʔisrāʔīla ʔaṯmarū wasaʕaw wakaṯurū waʕaẓamū jiddan jiddan wamtalā ḏālika l-baladu minhum.
      And the sons of Israel were fruitful, and strove, and were numerous, and were very, very mighty, and that country was full of them.

Pronoun

מן • (transliteration needed) ?

  1. Judeo-Arabic spelling of مَنْ (man, “who”)‎‎
    • c. 10th century, Saadia Gaon, Tafsir‎, Exodus 1:8:
      וקאם מלך גׄדיד עלי מצר מן לם ישאהד יוסף׃
      waqāma malikun jadīdun ʕalā miṣra man lam yušāhid yūsufa.
      And a new king arose over Egypt who had not witnessed Joseph.

Aramaic

Etymology 1

Compare Hebrew מִן (min, “from”), Arabic مِن (min, “from”).

Preposition

מִן • (min)

  1. from
Descendants
  • Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭭 (mn /⁠az⁠/)

Conjunction

מִן • (min)

  1. since, after
  2. because

Etymology 2

Compare Arabic مَن (man, “who”).

Alternative forms

Pronoun

מַן • (man)

  1. who (interrogative)

Hebrew

Etymology 1

Cognate to Aramaic מִן (min), Arabic مِنْ (min).

Preposition

מִן • (min)

  1. Alternative form of מִ־ (mi-).
Usage notes
  • Usually only used preceding the definite article הַ־ (ha-) or as a standalone form, and in current usage is restricted to formal contexts. Otherwise מִ־ (mi-) is used.
Inflection
  • מִן shares its inflected forms with מִ־ (mi-).
Inflection table
Non-personal-pronoun-including form מִ־, מֵ־ (me-, mi-), מִן (min)
Personal-pronoun-
including forms		 Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
First person מִמֶּנִּי (miméni) מִמֶּנּוּ (miménu),
מֵאִתָּנוּ (me'itánu)
Second person מִמְּךָ (mim'kha) מִמֵּךְ (miméch) מִכֶּם (mikém),
מִמְּכֶם (mimkhém)1		 מִכֶּן (mikén),
מִמְּכֶן (mimkhém)1
Third person מִמֶּנּוּ (miménu)2,
הֵימֶּנּוּ (heiménu)3		 מִמֶּנָּה (miména)
הֵימֶּנָּה (heiména)3		 מֵהֶם (meihem) מֵהֶן (meihen)
Notes

1. The forms ממכם and ממכן are somewhat informal.
2. The pronunciation miméno is colloquial.
3. The forms הימנו and הימנה are Mishnaic.

Further reading

Etymology 2

Uncertain. Ebers suggested it was borrowed from Egyptian
mn
n		 nw
W		 Hn
 (mnw, “a type of aromatic plant”); other scholars have suggested the Egyptian word was instead borrowed from Semitic, or that hypotheses of such a connection are unsubstantiated. The original story in the scriptures mentions that the people said "מָן הוּא" when they first saw it, which the context suggests meant "what is it?". This may have been a folk-etymological attempt to explain the name.

Noun

מָן • (man) m (no plural forms)

  1. manna
Descendants
  • →? Ancient Greek: μάννα (mánna)
    • Greek: μάννα (mánna)
    • → Late Latin: manna
      • → Old English:
        • Middle English:
      • → Italian: manna (semi-learned)
      • → Polish: manna (learned)
      • → Sicilian: manna (semi-learned)

References

  • Takács, Gábor (2007) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 284–285, →ISBN
  • Ebers, Georg (1872) Durch Gosen zum Sinai: Aus dem Wanderbuche und der Bibliothek, pp. 226–227
  • Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, page 71

Persian

Pronoun

מן • (man)

  1. Judeo-Persian spelling of من (man).
    • 1600s, Elisha ben Shmūel, translated by Dalia Yasharpour, The Prince and the Sufi: The Judeo-Persian Rendition of the Buddha Biographies, Brill, published November 9, 2020:
      צֿנאן גשתה וֿגִודש פיש מן כֿאר
      כה פנדארם כם‭‬ אז כלבסת צד באר
      čenin gašte vojud-aš piš-e man xâr
      ke pendâram kam az kalb ast sad bâr
      His existence for me has become so base
      That I view him infinitely lower than a dog.

Yiddish

Etymology

From Hebrew מָן (man).

Pronunciation

Noun

מן • (man) m

  1. manna
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