Man (word)

This article is about the word "man". For adult males, see Man. For other uses, see Man (disambiguation).

The term man (from Proto-Germanic *mannaz or *manwaz "man, person") 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 ᛗ.

Etymology

It is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *man- (see Sanskrit/Avestan manu-, Slavic muž "man, male").^[1] 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 wer and wīf (and wīfmann) were used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, while mann had the primary meaning of "adult male human" but could also be used for gender neutral purposes (as is the case with modern German man, 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 *men- "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 ζῷον λόγoν ἔχον, which is also the basis for Homo sapiens (see Human self-reflection). This etymology is however not generally accepted.

A second etymology postulates the reduction of the ancestor of "human" to the ancestor of "man". Human is from *dhghem-, "earth". *(dh)ghom-on- is some sort of “earthdweller” . The word would reduce to just its final syllable, *m-on-. This is the view of Eric Partridge, Origins, under man. Such a derivation might be credible if we had only the Germanic form (also note that Tuisto, father of Mannus, is the god who sprang from the earth), but the attested Indo-Iranian manu virtually excludes the possibility. Alternatively, the Online Etymological Dictionary makes a connection between human with the word humus suggesting an indication of earthly beings as opposed to the gods, and also citing a possible Hebrew etymology adam meaning man, from adamah meaning ground.

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 homo: in most of the Romance languages, homme, uomo, om, hombre, homem have come to refer mainly to males, with residual generic meaning.

The inflected forms of Old English man are^[2]

	sg.	pl.
nom.	mann	menn
gen.	mannes	manna
dat.	menn	mannum
acc.	mann	menn

The inflected forms of Old High German word for man (without i-mutation) are^[3]

	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:^[4]

	sg.	pl.
nom.	maðr	menn
acc.	mann	menn
dat.	manni	mönnum
gen.	manns	manna

Mannus

Main article: Mannus

Mannus is the Latinized form of the Germanic term as given by Tacitus. 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 Sea);
• the Irminones (living in the interior part around the Elbe);
• the Istvaeones (living at the borders of the river Rhine).

Mannaz rune

Name	Proto-Germanic	Old English	Old Norse
	*Mannaz	Man	Maðr
	"man, human"
Shape	Elder Futhark	Futhorc	Younger Futhark
Unicode	ᛗ U+16D7		ᛘ U+16D8	ᛙ U+16D9
Transliteration	m
Transcription	m
IPA	[m]
Position in rune-row	20		14

Two early forms of the m-rune of the Younger Futhark.

*Mannaz or *Manwaz is also the Proto-Germanic the reconstructed name of the m-rune ᛗ. 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).

Rune Poem:[5]	English Translation:
Old Norwegian ᛉ 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 ᛉ 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 ᛗ 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 mankind, 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 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. Now that there is an increasing number of women in these jobs, those terms are often replaced by neutral terms like "firefighter", "police officer" and "mail carrier".

The word "man" is also commonly used to express exclamation in American verbal communication similar to the word "dude": "Man! The gas prices here are really expensive!". It is also used in the expression "The Man", usually referring to some form of authority and one often viewed by the speaker as oppressive.

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.^[6]

See also

• Were
• First man
• Last man
• Manu (Hinduism)
• Gender neutrality in English

References

1. ^ American Heritage Dictionary, Appendix I: Indo-European Roots. man-1. Accessed 2007-07-22.
2. ^ Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, A Guide to Old English, 6th ed p. 29.
3. ^ Karl August Hahn, Althochdeutsche Grammatik, p. 37.
4. ^ Old Norse Lesson Seven by Óskar Guðlaugsson and Haukur Þorgeirsson
5. ^ Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page.
6. ^ Tolkien, J.R.R. (1954 [2005]). The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin.  paperback: ISBN 0-618-64015-0