man
/ˈmæn/ noun, interjection, pronoun, verb, proper noun
Forms men mans manning manned Mann Man.
- noun An adult male human. “The show is especially popular with middle-aged men.”
- noun (collective) All human males collectively: mankind.
- noun An adult male who belongs to a particular group: an employee, a representative, etc.
- noun An adult male who has, to an eminent degree, qualities considered masculine, such as strength, integrity, and devotion to family; a mensch.
- noun An adult or adolescent male servant. Anyone from a right-hand man (high-ranking assistant) to a low-ranking servant.
- noun (dated, formal) A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult. “every man for himself”
- noun (collective, formal, somewhat dated) All humans collectively; mankind, humankind, humanity.
- noun (anthropology, archaeology, paleontology) A member of the genus Homo, especially of the species Homo sapiens.
- interjection Used to place emphasis upon something or someone; sometimes, but not always, when actually addressing a man. “Man, that was a great catch!”
- pronoun (MLE, slang, personal pronoun) Used to refer to oneself or one's group: I, we; construed in the third person. “Man's got some new creps.”
- pronoun (MLE, slang, personal pronoun) You; construed in the third person. “Man thinks I was born yesterday.”
- pronoun (MLE, slang, indefinite personal pronoun) Any person, one “Man don't care.”
- verb (transitive) To supply (something) with staff or crew (of either sex). “The ship was manned with a small crew.”
- verb (transitive) To take up position in order to operate (something). “Man the machine guns!”
- verb (reflexive, possibly dated) To brace (oneself), to fortify or steel (oneself) in a manly way. (Compare man up.)
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To wait on, attend to or escort.
- verb (transitive, obsolete, chiefly falconry) To accustom (a raptor or other type of bird) to the presence of people.
- proper noun (computing) A command used to display help pages in Unix and Unix-like operating systems.
- proper noun The genus Homo.
- proper noun (poetic) Humankind in general.
Synonyms
baron his lordship hubby husband lord and master old man meeple piece token life bloke boy bro broski bruh cat chap chappy chield cove adult male serviceman military man military personnel homo human being human valet valet de chambre gentleman
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of mann and Manu.
This word has many cognates, in every Germanic language (whether extant or extinct), with similarities in form and meaning.
Virtually all the words below mean “man” and “husband”, with some specific cases noted.
In Ingvaeonic (the languages closest to English):
:* Low German Mann
:* North Frisian maan, man, moon, muon
:* Saterland Frisian Mon
:* West Frisian man
In the remainder of West Germanic:
:* Alemannic German ma, Maa, Mann, mo, mà, Mànn
:* Bavarian Mo, mon, moon, Må, mònn
:* Cimbrian man, mann, månn
:* Dutch, Limburgish, and Zealandic man
:* German and Luxembourgish Mann
:* Vilamovian maon, mon, mōn
:* Yiddish מאַן (man)
:* Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna), which meant “man”, “human“ and “person”, but likely also “husband”
:* Faroese and Icelandic maður, both additionally meaning “human” and “person”, as in Old Norse
:* Gutnish and Swedish man
:* Norn, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk mann
:* Norwegian Nynorsk mainnj
:* Old Norse maðr
::* Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬱 (manuš, “human”)
::* Sanskrit मनुस् (manus, “human”), मनु (manu, “human; humanity; thought”; “thinking; wise; intelligent”)
::* Also Sanskrit म॒नु॒ष्य॑ (manuṣyà, “human; man; huband”, whence English manusya)
: Slavic (all of these mean “man” and “husband”, though in some cases the former is no longer part of the modern standard):
::* Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian муж (muž)
::* Bulgarian мъж (măž)
::* Czech and Slovak muž
::* Macedonian маж (maž)
::* Polish mąż (“husband”; the meaning “man” is obsolete, akin to English wife)
::* Serbo-Croatian му̑ж, mȗž
From Middle English mannen, from Old English mannian, ġemannian (“to man, supply with men, populate, garrison”), from mann (“human being, man”).
* Dutch bemannen (“to man”)
* German bemannen (“to man”)
* Danish bemande (“to man”)
* Swedish bemanna (“to man”)
* Icelandic manna (“to supply with men, to man”)
Clipping of manual.
From man.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A human being; --opposed tobeast.
- noun Especially: An adult male person; a grown-up male person, as distinguished from a woman or a child.
- verb To supply with men; to furnish with a sufficient force or complement of men, as for management, service, defense, or the like; to guard; as, to man a ship, boat, or fort.
- verb To furnish with strength for action; to prepare for efficiency; to fortify. "Theodosius having manned his soul with proper reflections." Addison.
Etymology [AS. mann, man, monn, mon; akin to OS., D., & OHG. man, G. mann, Icel. maedhr, for mannr, Dan. Mand, Sw. man, Goth. manna, Skr. manu, manus, and perh. to Skr. man to think, and E. mind. sq. root104. Cf. Minx a pert girl.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “man”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details