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(singular): mang(dialectal rendering, suggesting a Spanish accent), mane(dialectal rendering, suggesting an AAVE accent), mans(slang), mon(slang, used in the vocative, in places such as Jamaica and Shropshire in England), mxn(rare, feminist)
(plural): mans(Multicultural London English, Toronto, nonstandard, proscribed), mens, man, mandem(Multicultural London English),[1]mens(nonstandard, African-American Vernacular), mxn(rare, feminist), myn(very rare, chiefly humorous)
“[…]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.”
For more quotations using this term, see Citations:man.
A man would expect, in so very ancient a town of Italy, to find some considerable antiquities; but all they have to show of this nature is an old Rostrum of a Roman ship, that stands over the door of their arsenal.
1793 August, Edmund Burke, “The Right Hon. Edmund Burke to the Comte de Mercy”, in Charles William [Wentworth-Fitzwilliam], [5th] Earl Fitzwilliam, Richard Bourke, editors, Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Between the Year 1744, and the Period of His Decease, in 1797, volume IV, London: Francis & John Rivington,, published 1844, pages 144–145:
Without this help, such a deplorable havoc is made in the minds of men (both sexes) in France, still more than in the external order of things, and the evil is so great and spreading, that a remedy is impossible on any other terms.
Similarly, the next time you learn from your reading that the average man (you hear a good deal about him these days, most of it faintly improbable) brushes his teeth 1.02 times a day—a figure I have just made up, but it may be as good as anyone else's – ask yourself a question. How can anyone have found out such a thing? Is a woman who has read in countless advertisements that non-brushers are social offenders going to confess to a stranger that she does not brush her teeth regularly?
God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
1991, Barry J. Blake, Australian Aboriginal Languages: A General Introduction, page 75:
Academics who study Aboriginal languages are […] contributing to Man’s search for knowledge, a search that interests most people even if they are not personally involved in it.
2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in 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.
1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie.”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: Will Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
Expect: But was the devil a proper man, gossip? As fine a gentleman of his inches as ever I saw trusted to the stage, or any where else.
2008, Christopher Paolini, Brisingr: Or The Seven Promises of Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Bjartskular - Inheritance Book Three, →ISBN, page 549:
Clearing a space between the tables, the men tested their prowess against one another with feats of wrestling and archery and bouts with quarterstaves. Two of the elves, a man and a woman, demonstrated their skill with swordplay—[…]
2014, Oisin McGann, Kings of the Realm: Cruel Salvation, Penguin UK, →ISBN:
There was a pair of burly dwarves – a woman and a man – bearing the markings of the formidable Thane Guards.
When President Roosevelt goes walking in the country about Washington he is always accompanied by two Secret Service men.
1913, Robert Herrick, One Woman's Life, page 46:
"And they're very good people, I assure you — he's a Harvard man." It was the first time Milly had met on intimate terms a graduate of a large university.
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.
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.
"It was a brutal return to football for Brisbane Lions defender Harris Andrews as his man Tom Hawkins booted seven goals but Lions Coach Chris Fagan said the team's defensive faults, rather than the backman's, allowed the big Cat to dominate."
2023 March 26, Phil McNulty, “England 2-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport:
The second arrived three minutes later and was all Saka's own work, the Arsenal winger turning away from his man on the edge of the area and curling a superb effort beyond the reach of Anatoliy Trubin and into the top corner.
1953, Notes, Medical Basic Sciences Course, 1950-1953, volume 2, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, page 695:
The roentgen-equivalent-man (or mammal), (rem), is the estimated amount of energy absorbed in tissue which is biologically equivalent in man to 1 r of gamma- or x-rays.
The use of "man" (compare Old English: mann, wer, wīf) to mean both "human (of any gender)" and "adult male", which developed after Old English's distinct term for the latter (wer) fell out of use, has been criticized since at least the second half of the twentieth century.[2] Critics claim that the use of "man", both alone and in compounds, to denote a human of any gender "is now often regarded as sexist or at best old-fashioned",[2] "flatly discriminatory in that it slights or ignores the membership of women in the human race".[3] The American Heritage Dictionary wrote that in 2004 75–79% of their usage panel still accepted sentences with generic man, and 86–87% accepted sentences with man-made.[4] Some style guides recommend against generic "man",[5] and "although some editors and writers reject or disregard objections to man as a generic, many now choose instead to use" human, human being or person instead.[3]
This generic usage is still preserved in certain dialects, pidgins, and creoles of English, as well as fixed expressions and certain religious documents and declarations such as the Nicene Creed (e.g. "...for us men and our salvation..."). Consideration of this has sometimes led to accusations of the critics of the generic man as enforcing linguistic prescriptivism.
Used to place emphasis upon something or someone; sometimes, but not always, when actually addressing a man.
Man, that was a great catch!
2019 August 15, Bob Stanley, “'Groovy, groovy, groovy': listening to Woodstock 50 years on – all 38 discs”, in The Guardian:
The 19 meandering minutes of Dark Star are attractive enough but, man, they go on, while poor Creedence Clearwater Revival – headliners, with Bad Moon Rising still in the charts – are watching the clock tick in the wings.
Sully: If it weren’t for that snake […]Man wouldn’t even be in this mess right now.
2013, Jenny Cheshire, “Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun”, in Journal of Sociolinguistics, volume 17, number 5, page 609:
before I got arrested man paid for my own ticket to go Jamaica you know . but I’ve never paid to go on no holiday before this time I paid (Dexter, MLE)
Oh, come on. Help a brother out. People see you coppin', might inspire them. Look, I know you ain't payin' bills right now. Man must have bare peas saved up.
He was of all colours Þat man may se of flours Be-twene Mydsomer and May.
2013, Jenny Cheshire, “Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun”, in Journal of Sociolinguistics, volume 17, number 5, page 609:
I don’t really mind how . how my girl looks if she looks decent yeah and there’s one bit of her face that just looks mashed yeah . I don’t care it’s her personality man’s looking at (Alex, Multicultural London English corpus [MLE])
Usage notes
The usage of man as a pronoun originally died out in the 15th century. It has independently reappeared in Multicultural London English. There it is most commonly used as a first person pronoun or as an indefinite personal pronoun, but uses in the second and third person are also attested.[1]
2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 39:
In Britain, nearly 2,500 steam locomotives were built, 999 to new designs. Although the latter were modern, they were still labour-intensive to man and maintain, during a period of full employment when working for poor pay in the dirty railway environment was unattractive.
↑ 1.01.1Jenny Cheshire (2013) “Grammaticalisation in social context: The emergence of a new English pronoun”, in Journal of Sociolinguistics, volume 17, number 5, pages 608–633
The normal plural in contemporary Afrikaans is mans. The form manne now usually refers to the members of a male group, such as a group of friends or a team or unit. Compare:
Vroue en mans moet gelyke regte hê. ― Women and men must have equal rights.
Die manne het goed gespeel vandag. ― The men played well today.
Syncopated form of Gheg mand, from Proto-Albanian*manta. Compare Ancient Greekβάτος(bátos, “bramble”), said by Beekes to be a Mediterranean wanderwort, and μαντία(mantía, “blackberry”) (Dacian loan).
She has been happily married to her husband for years.
Hij is een zorgzame man en een geweldige vader.
He is a caring husband and a great father.
Haar man verraste haar met een romantisch diner.
Her husband surprised her with a romantic dinner.
Usage notes
The normal plural is mannen. The unchanged form man is used after numerals only; it refers to the size of a group rather than a number of individuals. For example: In totaal verloren er 5000 man hun leven in die slag. (“5000 men altogether lost their lives in that battle.”) The plural mans is dated, now mostly occurring in nautical contexts or in dialect.
Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “mãao”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
one, you, they(indefinite pronoun, referring to people at large; construed as a third-person singular)
Man kann nicht immer kriegen, was man will.
You can’t always get what you want.
Manchmal muss man Kompromisse machen.
Sometimes one must compromise.
Zumindest sagt man das so...
At least that’s what they say...
2008, Frank Behmeta, Wenn ich die Augen öffne, page 55:
Kann man es fühlen, wenn man schwanger ist?
Can one feel that one is pregnant?
Usage notes
Man is used in the nominative case only; for the oblique cases forms of the pronoun einer are used. For example: Man kann nicht immer tun, was einen glücklich macht. — One cannot always do what makes one happy.
Since man derives from the same source as Mann(“man; male”), its use is considered problematic by some feminists. They have proposed alternating man and the feminine neologism frau, or using the generic neologism mensch. This usage has gained some currency in feminist and left-wing publications, but remains rare otherwise.
In the sense of “someone,” man is often translated using the passive voice (“I was told that...” rather than “someone told me that...”).
1584, “Exodus. Aunnur Bok Moſe”, in Guðbrandur Þorláksson, transl., Biblia, Þad Er Øll Heiloͤg Ritning vtloͤgd a Norrænu, Hólar: Jón Jónsson, chapter 16, verse 33, page 76:
Og Moſes ſegde til Aaron / Tak þier eina Føtu / og legg eirn Gomor fullan af Man þar i / og lꜳt þad vardueitaſt fyrer DROTTNI til ydar ep[t]erkomande Kynkuijſla
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
bleſſid is þe man þat ſuffriþ temptacioun / foꝛ whanne he ſchal be pꝛeued .· he ſchal reſſeyue þe coꝛoun of lijf · which god bihiȝte to men þat louen hym
A person who endures temptation is blessed, because when they've been tested, they'll receive the crown of life that God promised to the people who love him.
Benecke, Georg Friedrich, Müller, Wilhelm, Zarncke, Friedrich (1863) “man”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel
The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions. Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. At is not enclitic; it can stand in any unstressed position and refers mostly to things. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur. Dual forms wat / onk and jat / jonk are obsolete, as is feminine jü / hör. Independent possessives are distinguished from attributive ones only with plural referents. The forms üsens, jamens, hörens are used optionally (and decreasingly) when the possessor is a larger community, such as a village, city or nation.
Personal and possessive pronouns (Mooring dialect)
The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions. Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. Et is not enclitic and can stand in any unstressed position; the full subject form hat is now rarely used. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur. Dual forms wat / unk and jat / junk are obsolete. Attributive and independent possessives are not distinguished in Mooring.
The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions. Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. Et is not enclitic and can stand in any unstressed position; the full subject form hat is now rarely used. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur. The dual forms are dated, but not obsolete as in other dialects. Independent possessives are distinguished from attributive ones only with plural referents.
Northern Kurdish
Etymology
From earlier *mandin, which is preserved in the present stem mîn-; akin to Persianماندن. The form shift from -and- to -a- is after when -and- standardized as the past stem final of transitive verbs.
Man sċeal lǣwedum mannum seċġan be heora andġietes mǣðe, swā þæt hīe ne bēon þurh þā dēopnesse ǣmōde ne þurh þā langsumnesse ǣþrȳtte.
One has to talk to laymen according to how much they understand, so they are not intimidated by the depth of what one is saying or bored by the length.
Þā sē Hǣlend ċild wæs, eall hine man fēdde swā man ōðru ċildru fētt. Hē læġ on cradole bewunden, ealswā ōðru ċildru dōþ. Hine man bær oþ hē self gān meahte.
When Jesus was a baby, he was fed just like other babies are fed. He lay wrapped up in a cradle, just like other babies do. He was carried until he could walk by himself.
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.Polański, Kazimierz (1973) “man”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka Drzewian połabskich [Etymological Dictionary of the Polabian Drevani Language] (in Polish), number 3 (ľǫ̇dü – perĕ), Wrocław, Warszawa etc.: Ossolineum, page 356
Polański, Kazimierz, James Allen Sehnert (1967) “man”, in Polabian-English Dictionary, The Hague, Paris: Mouton & Co, page 92
Olesch, Reinhold (1962) “Mann”, in Thesaurus Linguae Dravaenopolabicae [Thesaurus of the Drevani language] (in German), volumes 1: A – O, Cologne, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, →ISBN, page 552
2000, Marron C. Fort, transl., Dät Näie Tästamänt un do Psoolme in ju aasterlauwerfräiske Uurtoal fon dät Seelterlound, Fräislound, Butjoarlound, Aastfräislound un do Groninger Umelounde [The New Testament and the Psalms in the East Frisian language, native to Saterland, Friesland, Butjadingen, East Frisia and the Ommelanden of Groningen], →ISBN, Dät Evangelium ätter Matthäus 1:23:
Sjooët, n Maiden skäl n Bäiden undfange, n Súun skäl ju uurwinne, un man skäl him dän Nome Immanuel reke, dät hat uursät: God is mäd uus.
Behold, a virgin shall become pregnant with a child, she will give birth to a son, and they shall give him the name Immanuel, which is translated: God is with us.
(adult male human): The unchanged plural man is sometimes used after numerals. It means "men" as a measure for size or strength of a group rather than individuals:
Med tre man kan vi lyfta byrån ― With three people we can lift the cupboard
Military or police personnel, team members, demonstrators and the like are often counted using this unchanged plural. The same goes with German and Dutch where Mann and man can have an unchanged plural form in this particular case.
(husband): Not used in other contexts, where it could be confused with a man in general.
1984, Adolphson & Falk (lyrics and music), “I fördatorisk tid [In pre-computer times ]”, in Över tid och rum [Across time and space]:
För länge, länge sen såg inte världen ut som nu. Man levde inte alls på samma sätt som jag och du. Man hade ständiga problem med sin kommunikation. För att göra sig hörd var man tvungen att ta ton. Man siktade mot mål, men man träffade bredvid, för inget var exakt i en fördatorisk tid. Man sände sina dokument med män i uniform, som färdades på snö och is i hällregn och storm. Man köpte sina tjänster med papper och metall – ett besynnerligt system som fick imperier på fall. Man sa att grunden var solid, men staten kom på glid, för system var instabila i en fördatorisk tid. Tiderna förändras. Andra ska ta vid. Sanningar föråldras. De formas av sin egen tid. Man byggde stora städer där man trängdes med varann – där man omgav sig med dån och larm och stod i rök och damm. Man sökte efter ledare med styrka och förstånd, som skulle föra folket bort från krig och undergång. En roll alltför komplex för en enda individ, så inget blev beständigt i en fördatorisk tid. Tiderna förändras. Andra ska ta vid. Sanningar föråldras. Man formas av sin egen tid. Man måste stiga upp varje vardag klockan fem, för att stå vid en maskin tills det blev kväll och man gick hem. Man levde under hot, på gränsen till panik, så man sökte efter sanningen i stjärnornas mystik. Man talade om fred, men man låg i ständig strid, för manförlitade sig på människan i fördatorisk tid.
A long, long time ago, the world was different from today . People did not at all live in the same way as me and you . You had constant problems with your communication. To make yourself heard, you had to speak up . You aimed for goals , but you hit next to them , because nothing was exact in a pre-computer time. You sent your documents with men in uniform, who traveled on snow and ice in pouring rain and storm. You bought your services with paper and metal – a peculiar system that brought empires down . People said that the foundation was solid, but the state started slipping on the slide ], because systems were unstable in a pre-computer time. times change. Others will follow/ensue . Truths become outdated . They are shaped by their own time. People built large cities where they crowded together – where they surrounded themselves with roar and racket and stood in smoke and dust. They sought leaders with strength and reason, that would lead the people away from war and ruin . A role much too complex for a single individual, so nothing endured in a pre-computer time. times change. Others will follow/ensue . Truths become outdated . You are shaped by your own time. You had to get up every weekday at five, to stand at a machine until the evening and then go home went home]. You lived under threat, on the verge of panic, so you searched for the truth in the mystery of the stars . People spoke of peace, but they were in constant conflict , because you relied on man/humans in pre-computer times.
Intuited as a singular pronoun referring to people individually in a generalized sense, like English one.
Man does not sound formal the way English one might when used instead of you. Man is usually the only option when either you or one might be used in English, as Swedish du(“you”) and ni(“you (plural)”) sound more like "you specifically." See the quotations for (sense 1) above for examples of how man can be translated while preserving tone.
See the usage notes for bli and skall for two other examples of words that have a direct translation that is often unidiomatic or a poor match for tone.
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
References
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “man”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 55