Man (word)
Encyclopedia
The term man and words derived from it can designate any or even all of the human race
regardless of their sex or age. The word developed into Old English man, mann meaning primarily "adult male human" but secondarily capable of designating a person of unspecified gender, "someone, one" or humanity at large (see also German
Mann, Old Norse
maðr, Gothic
manna "man"). More restricted English terms for an adult male were wer (cognate: Latin vir; survives as the first element in "werewolf") and guma (cognate: Latin homo; survives as the second element in "bridegroom").
*Mannaz or *Manwaz is also the Proto-Germanic
reconstructed name of the m-rune
.
root *man- (see Sanskrit
/Avestan manu-, Slavic
muž "man, male"). In Hindu mythology
, Manu
is a title accorded the progenitor of humankind
. The Slavic forms (Russian
muzh "man, male" etc.) are derived from a suffixed stem *mon-gyo-.
*Manus in Indo-European mythology
was the first man, see Mannus
, Manu (Hinduism)
In Old English the words and (and ) were used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, while had the primary meaning of "adult male human" but could also be used for gender neutral purposes (as is the case with modern German , corresponding to the pronoun in the English utterance "one does what one must").
Some etymologies treat the root as an independent one, as does the American Heritage Dictionary. Of the etymologies that do make connections with other Indo-European roots, man "the thinker" is the most traditional — that is, the word is connected with the root * "to think" (cognate
to mind). This etymology presumes that man is the one who thinks, which fits the definition of man given by René Descartes
as a "rational animal", indebted to Aristotle
's , which is also the basis for Homo sapiens (see Human self-reflection
). This etymology, however, is not generally accepted.
A second etymology postulates the reduction of the ancestor of "human" to the ancestor of "man". Human is from *, "earth", thus implying * would be an "earthdweller". The latter word, when reduced to just its final syllable, would be merely *m-on-. This is the view of Eric Partridge
, Origins, under man. Such a derivation might be credible if only the Germanic form was known, but the attested Indo-Iranian manu virtually excludes the possibility. Moreover, * is known to have survived in Old English not as but as , the ancestor of the second element of the Modern English word bridegroom.
In the twentieth century, the generic meaning of "man" declined (but survives in compounds "mankind", "everyman", "no-man", etc.), and is now mostly seen as archaic, with the word used almost exclusively to mean "adult male". The same thing has happened to the Latin word : in most of the Romance languages, , , , , have come to refer mainly to males, with residual generic meaning.
The inflected forms of Old English are
The inflected forms of Old High German
word for man (without i-mutation
) are
The inflected forms of the Old Norse word for man, maðr, are:
. According to Tacitus, Mannus is the son of the earth-born Tuisto and the ancestor and founder of the three Germanic tribes:
the reconstructed name of the m-rune
. Younger Futhark ᛘ is maðr ("man
"). It took up the shape of the algiz
rune ᛉ, replacing Old Futhark ᛗ mannaz.
The rune is recorded in all three Rune Poems, in the Norwegian and Icelandic poems as maðr, and in the Anglo-Saxon poem as man. As its sound value and form in the Elder Futhark indicate, it is derived from the Greek
letter Mu (μ)
.
, everyman, no-man's land, etc.). Exactly the same thing has happened to the Latin word homo: in the Romance languages, homme, uomo, om, hombre, homem etc. have all come to refer mainly to males, with residual generic meaning.
The word "man" is still used in its generic meaning in literary English. In The Lord of the Rings
, the capitalized form Man
(plural: Men) is used to refer to the race of humans (as distinguished from other races found in the Tolkien canon, such as Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs). When spelled in lowercase, man and men refer to adult males of any race (likewise, "woman/women" refer to adult females of any race). The ambiguity of the term plays a key role in The Return of the King
in the confrontation between Éowyn
and the Witch-king of Angmar
. In the confrontation, the latter boasts that it has been prophesied that "no living man may hinder me", and is thereupon slain by Éowyn, a female human.
The verb to man (i.e. "to furnish [a fortress or a ship] with a company of men" dates to early Middle English.
The word has historically been used very generally as a suffix in combinations like "fireman", "policeman" and "mailman". Because those jobs were historically jobs done by men only, these terms were not felt any longer to be gender-neutral (as they originally would have been), and artificial terms coined to be emphatically gender-neutral were coined in the pursuit of political correctness
, such as "firefighter", "police officer" and "mail carrier".
In US American slang, man! also came to be used as an interjection, not necessarily addressing the listener but simply added for emphasis, much like boy!.
Also in American English, the expression The Man
referring to "the oppressive powers that be" originated in the Southern States
in the 19th century, and became widespread in the urban underworld from the 1950s.
Human Race
Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
regardless of their sex or age. The word developed into Old English man, mann meaning primarily "adult male human" but secondarily capable of designating a person of unspecified gender, "someone, one" or humanity at large (see also German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Mann, Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
maðr, Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
manna "man"). More restricted English terms for an adult male were wer (cognate: Latin vir; survives as the first element in "werewolf") and guma (cognate: Latin homo; survives as the second element in "bridegroom").
*Mannaz or *Manwaz is also the Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic language
Proto-Germanic , or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all the Germanic languages, such as modern English, Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Luxembourgish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and Swedish.The Proto-Germanic language is...
reconstructed name of the m-rune
Runic alphabet
The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
.
Etymology
It is derived from a Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
root *man- (see Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
/Avestan manu-, Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
muž "man, male"). In Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology
Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...
, Manu
Manu (Hinduism)
In various Hindu traditions, Manu is a title accorded to the progenitor of mankind, and also the very first brahman king to rule this earth, who saved mankind from the universal flood. He was absolutely honest which was why he was initially known as "Satyavrata"...
is a title accorded the progenitor of humankind
First man or woman
First man or woman may refer to:* The spouse of an elected head of state, see First Lady, First Gentleman.* First Man, the biography of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon....
. The Slavic forms (Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
muzh "man, male" etc.) are derived from a suffixed stem *mon-gyo-.
*Manus in Indo-European mythology
Proto-Indo-European religion
Proto-Indo-European religion is the hypothesized religion of the Proto-Indo-European peoples based on the existence of similarities among the deities, religious practices and mythologies of the Indo-European peoples. Reconstruction of the hypotheses below is based on linguistic evidence using the...
was the first man, see Mannus
Mannus
Mannus is a Germanic mythological figure attested by the 1st century AD Roman historian Tacitus in his work Germania. According to Tacitus, Mannus is the son of Tuisto and the progenitor of the three Germanic tribes Ingaevones, Herminones and Istvaeones.-Tacitus' account:Tacitus explicitly...
, Manu (Hinduism)
Manu (Hinduism)
In various Hindu traditions, Manu is a title accorded to the progenitor of mankind, and also the very first brahman king to rule this earth, who saved mankind from the universal flood. He was absolutely honest which was why he was initially known as "Satyavrata"...
In Old English the words and (and ) were used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, while had the primary meaning of "adult male human" but could also be used for gender neutral purposes (as is the case with modern German , corresponding to the pronoun in the English utterance "one does what one must").
Some etymologies treat the root as an independent one, as does the American Heritage Dictionary. Of the etymologies that do make connections with other Indo-European roots, man "the thinker" is the most traditional — that is, the word is connected with the root * "to think" (cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
to mind). This etymology presumes that man is the one who thinks, which fits the definition of man given by René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
as a "rational animal", indebted to Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's , which is also the basis for Homo sapiens (see Human self-reflection
Human self-reflection
Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about their fundamental nature, purpose and essence. The earliest historical records demonstrate the great interest which humanity has had in itself...
). This etymology, however, is not generally accepted.
A second etymology postulates the reduction of the ancestor of "human" to the ancestor of "man". Human is from *, "earth", thus implying * would be an "earthdweller". The latter word, when reduced to just its final syllable, would be merely *m-on-. This is the view of Eric Partridge
Eric Partridge
Eric Honeywood Partridge was a New Zealand/British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the Army Education Corps and the RAF correspondence department during World War II...
, Origins, under man. Such a derivation might be credible if only the Germanic form was known, but the attested Indo-Iranian manu virtually excludes the possibility. Moreover, * is known to have survived in Old English not as but as , the ancestor of the second element of the Modern English word bridegroom.
In the twentieth century, the generic meaning of "man" declined (but survives in compounds "mankind", "everyman", "no-man", etc.), and is now mostly seen as archaic, with the word used almost exclusively to mean "adult male". The same thing has happened to the Latin word : in most of the Romance languages, , , , , have come to refer mainly to males, with residual generic meaning.
The inflected forms of Old English are
| sg. | pl. | |
| nom. | mann | menn |
| gen. | mannes | manna |
| dat. | menn | mannum |
| acc. | mann | menn |
The inflected forms of Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
word for man (without i-mutation
I-mutation
I-mutation is an important type of sound change, more precisely a category of regressive metaphony, in which a back vowel is fronted, and/or a front vowel is raised, if the following syllable contains /i/, /ī/ or /j/ I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or...
) are
| sg. | pl. | |
| nom. | man | man |
| gen. | mannes | mannô |
| dat. | manne, also man | mannum, mannun, mannom, mannen |
| acc. | manann, also man | man |
The inflected forms of the Old Norse word for man, maðr, are:
| sg. | pl. | |
| nom. | maðr | menn |
| acc. | mann | menn |
| dat. | manni | mönnum |
| gen. | manns | manna |
Mannus
Mannus is the Latinized form of the Germanic term as given by TacitusTacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
. According to Tacitus, Mannus is the son of the earth-born Tuisto and the ancestor and founder of the three Germanic tribes:
- the Ingvaeones (living at the coastal line of the North SeaNorth SeaIn the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
); - the IrminonesIrminonesThe Irminones, also referred to as Herminones or Hermiones, were a group of early Germanic tribes settling in the Elbe watershed and by the 1st century AD expanding into Bavaria, Swabia and Bohemia...
(living in the interior part around the ElbeElbeThe Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
); - the IstvaeonesIstvaeonesThe Istvaeones, also called Istaevones, Istriaones, Istriones, Sthraones, Thracones, Rhine Germans and Weser-Rhine Germans , were a West Germanic cultural group or proto-tribe...
(living at the borders of the river Rhine).
Mannaz rune
*Mannaz or *Manwaz is also the Proto-GermanicProto-Germanic language
Proto-Germanic , or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all the Germanic languages, such as modern English, Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Luxembourgish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and Swedish.The Proto-Germanic language is...
the reconstructed name of the m-rune
Runic alphabet
The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
. Younger Futhark ᛘ is maðr ("man
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
"). It took up the shape of the algiz
Algiz
The Algiz is part of the ancient Nordic and Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet, often equated to the modern day z, however was traditionally pronounced yr. The letter has come to symbolize many neo-pagan religions and is often worn as a pendant...
rune ᛉ, replacing Old Futhark ᛗ mannaz.
The rune is recorded in all three Rune Poems, in the Norwegian and Icelandic poems as maðr, and in the Anglo-Saxon poem as man. As its sound value and form in the Elder Futhark indicate, it is derived from the Greek
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
letter Mu (μ)
Mu (letter)
Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.-Biography:...
.
| Rune Poem: | English Translation: |
Old Norwegian Old Norwegian Old Norwegian refers to a group of Old Norse dialects spoken and written in Norway in the Middle Ages. They bridged the dialect continuum from Old East Norse to Old West Norse.-Old Norwegian vs Common Norse:... Maðr er moldar auki; mikil er græip á hauki. |
Man is an augmentation of the dust; great is the claw of the hawk. |
Old Icelandic Maðr er manns gaman ok moldar auki ok skipa skreytir. homo mildingr. |
Man is delight of man and augmentation of the earth and adorner of ships. |
Anglo-Saxon Man byþ on myrgþe his magan leof: sceal þeah anra gehwylc oðrum swican, forðum drihten wyle dome sine þæt earme flæsc eorþan betæcan. |
The joyous man is dear to his kinsmen; yet every man is doomed to fail his fellow, since the Lord by his decree will commit the vile carrion to the earth. |
Modern usage
In the 20th century, the generic meaning of man has declined still further (but survives in compounds mankindHuman
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
, everyman, no-man's land, etc.). Exactly the same thing has happened to the Latin word homo: in the Romance languages, homme, uomo, om, hombre, homem etc. have all come to refer mainly to males, with residual generic meaning.
The word "man" is still used in its generic meaning in literary English. In The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, the capitalized form Man
Man (Middle-earth)
The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...
(plural: Men) is used to refer to the race of humans (as distinguished from other races found in the Tolkien canon, such as Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs). When spelled in lowercase, man and men refer to adult males of any race (likewise, "woman/women" refer to adult females of any race). The ambiguity of the term plays a key role in The Return of the King
The Return of the King
The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.-Title:...
in the confrontation between Éowyn
Éowyn
Éowyn is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, who appears in his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. She is a noblewoman of Rohan who describes herself as a "shieldmaiden".-Literature:...
and the Witch-king of Angmar
Witch-king of Angmar
The Witch-king of Angmar, also known as the Lord of the Nazgûl and the Black Captain among other names, is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. In Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, he is the chief of the Nazgûl , the chief servants...
. In the confrontation, the latter boasts that it has been prophesied that "no living man may hinder me", and is thereupon slain by Éowyn, a female human.
The verb to man (i.e. "to furnish [a fortress or a ship] with a company of men" dates to early Middle English.
The word has historically been used very generally as a suffix in combinations like "fireman", "policeman" and "mailman". Because those jobs were historically jobs done by men only, these terms were not felt any longer to be gender-neutral (as they originally would have been), and artificial terms coined to be emphatically gender-neutral were coined in the pursuit of political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
, such as "firefighter", "police officer" and "mail carrier".
In US American slang, man! also came to be used as an interjection, not necessarily addressing the listener but simply added for emphasis, much like boy!.
Also in American English, the expression The Man
The Man
"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise....
referring to "the oppressive powers that be" originated in the Southern States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
in the 19th century, and became widespread in the urban underworld from the 1950s.
See also
- WereWereWere and wer are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures ....
- First man
- Last manLast ManThe last man is a term used by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra to describe the antithesis of the imagined superior being, the "Übermensch", whose imminent appearance is heralded by Zarathustra...
- Manu (Hinduism)Manu (Hinduism)In various Hindu traditions, Manu is a title accorded to the progenitor of mankind, and also the very first brahman king to rule this earth, who saved mankind from the universal flood. He was absolutely honest which was why he was initially known as "Satyavrata"...
- Gender neutrality in English