Man (word)

This article is about the word "man". For adult males, see man.

The term man (from Proto-Germanic mannaz "man, person") and words derived from it can designate any or even all of the human race regardless of their sex or age. This is indeed the oldest usage of "man". The word developed into Old English man, mann "human being, person," (cf. also German Mann, Old Norse maðr, Gothic manna "man").

Etymology

It is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *man- (cf. Sanskrit/Avestan manu-, Russian мужчина (muzhchina), Czech muž "man, male"). In Hindu mythology, Manu is a title accorded the progenitor of humankind. Sometimes, the word is connected with the root *men- "to think" (cognate to mind). Restricted use in the sense "adult male" only began to occur in late Old English, around 1000 AD, and the word formerly expressing male sex, wer had died out by 1300 (but survives in e.g. were-wolf and were-gild). The original sense of the word is preserved in mankind, from Old English mancynn.

In Old English the words wer and wīf (also wǣpmann and wīfmann) were used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, while mann was gender neutral. In Middle English man displaced wer as the term for "male human," whilst wyfman (which eventually evolved into woman) was retained for "female human". Man does continue to carry its original sense of "human" however, resulting in an asymmetry sometimes criticized as sexist.

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). Interestingly, exactly the same thing has happened to the Latin word homo: in the Romance languages, homme, uomo, hombre, homem etc. have all come to refer mainly to males, with residual generic meaning.

The word was historically used very generally as a suffix in combinations like "fireman", "policeman" and "mailman", because those jobs were historically only jobs that men did. Now that women can have those jobs as well, those terms are often replaced by neutral terms like "firefighter", "police officer" and "mail carrier".

"Mankind" is a commonly used phrase to refer to all of humanity. However, it is considered sexist by some, and hence, is commonly replaced by "humankind" or "humanity".

Some have proposed alternate spellings for words such as "woman/women" which are perceived as deriving from a masculine term; see womyn. (In some cases, such spellings are based on entirely inaccurate etymologies. The term herstory has been suggested as a feminist alternative to history; however the notion that the term "history" is related to the masculine pronoun "his" is incorrect.

The word "man" is also commonly used in combination with express of exclamation in American verbal communication. For example "Man! The gas prices here are really expensive".

Use in modern literature

The word "man" is sometimes used in period literature in its original sense. In the 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.