MAN (WORD)

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 gender 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").

Contents

Etymology

Modern usage

Use in modern literature

References

Etymology

It is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root ''
★ man-'' (cf. Sanskrit/Avestan ''manu-'', Russian ''мужчина (muzhchina)'', Czech ''muž'' "man, male").^[1] 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 '' (also '' and '') 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. ^[2]

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.^[3]
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.^[4]

References

1. American Heritage Dictionary, Appendix I: Indo-European Roots. man-1. Accessed 2007-07-22.
2. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=man
3. "Herstory", Oxford English Dictionary Online (Oxford University Press, 2006).
4. The Lord of the Rings, , J.R.R., Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin, 1954 [2005], paperback: ISBN 0-618-64015-0