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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),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], 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.
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.
Usage notes
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. Critics claim that the use of "man", both alone and in compounds, to denote a human or any gender "is now often regarded as sexist or at best old-fashioned", "flatly discriminatory in that it slights or ignores the membership of women in the human race". 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. Some style guides recommend against generic "man", 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.
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 )
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.
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, issue 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.
“mão” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
“mãao” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
“man” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
“man” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
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 eperkomande 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.
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.
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.
Does not sound formal the way English one might when substituted for you. Usually the only option in cases where both you and one might be used in English, as Swedish du(“you”) and ni(“you (plural)”) read more like "you, specifically."
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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 (1867), 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, page 55