英语单词

man是什么意思

man

英 [mæn] 美 [mæn]
  • n. 人;男人;人类;丈夫;雇工
  • vt. 操纵;给…配置人员;使增强勇气;在…就位
  • n. (Man)人名;(俄)马恩;(英、葡、意、罗、捷、尼、老、缅、柬)曼;(日)万 (名)

助记提示


man............蛮(野蛮)...............男 人
woman..........无 蛮(不野蛮)..........女 人

中文词源


man 男子,人,人类

来自古英语man,人类,男人,女人,来自Proto-Germanic*manwaz,来自PIE*man,人,进一步来自PIE*men,思考,词源同mind,mania.后不再用于女人义。

英文词源


man
man: [OE] Man is a widespread Germanic word (with relatives in German mann ‘man’ and mensch ‘person’, Dutch and Swedish man ‘man’, Danish mand ‘man’, and Swedish menniska ‘person’), and connections have even been found outside Germanic (Sanskrit, for instance, had mánu- ‘man’). But no decisive evidence has been found for an ultimate Indo- European source.

Among the suggestions put forward have been links with a base *men- ‘think’ or ‘breathe’, or with Latin manus ‘hand’. The etymologically primary sense of the word is ‘human being, person’, and that is what it generally meant in Old English: the sexes were generally distinguished by wer ‘man’ (which survives probably in werewolf and is related to world) and wīf (source of modern English wife) or cwene ‘woman’.

But during the Middle English and early modern English periods ‘male person’ gradually came to the fore, and today ‘person’ is decidedly on the decline (helped on its way by those who feel that the usage discriminates against women). Woman originated in Old English as a compound of wīf ‘woman, female’ and man ‘person’. Manikin [17] was borrowed from Dutch manneken, a diminutive form of man ‘man’; and mannequin [18] is the same word acquired via French.

=> manikin, mannequin
man (n.)
Old English man, mann "human being, person (male or female); brave man, hero; servant, vassal," from Proto-Germanic *manwaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Swedish, Dutch, Old High German man, German Mann, Old Norse maðr, Danish mand, Gothic manna "man"), from PIE root *man- (1) "man" (cognates: Sanskrit manuh, Avestan manu-, Old Church Slavonic mozi, Russian muzh "man, male").

Plural men (German Männer) shows effects of i-mutation. Sometimes connected to root *men- "to think" (see mind), which would make the ground sense of man "one who has intelligence," but not all linguists accept this. Liberman, for instance, writes, "Most probably man 'human being' is a secularized divine name" from Mannus [Tacitus, "Germania," chap. 2], "believed to be the progenitor of the human race."
So I am as he that seythe, `Come hyddr John, my man.' [1473]
Sense of "adult male" is late (c. 1000); Old English used wer and wif to distinguish the sexes, but wer began to disappear late 13c. and was replaced by man. Universal sense of the word remains in mankind and manslaughter. Similarly, Latin had homo "human being" and vir "adult male human being," but they merged in Vulgar Latin, with homo extended to both senses. A like evolution took place in Slavic languages, and in some of them the word has narrowed to mean "husband." PIE had two stems: *uiHro "freeman" (source of Sanskrit vira-, Lithuanian vyras, Latin vir, Old Irish fer, Gothic wair) and *hner "man," a title more of honor than *uiHro (source of Sanskrit nar-, Armenian ayr, Welsh ner, Greek aner).
MANTRAP, a woman's commodity. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," London, 1785]
Man also was in Old English as an indefinite pronoun, "one, people, they." The chess pieces so called from c. 1400. As an interjection of surprise or emphasis, first recorded c. 1400, but especially popular from early 20c. Man-about-town is from 1734; the Man "the boss" is from 1918. To be man or mouse "be brave or be timid" is from 1540s. Men's Liberation first attested 1970.
At the kinges court, my brother, Ech man for himself. [Chaucer, "Knight's Tale," c. 1386]
man (v.)
Old English mannian "to furnish (a fort, ship, etc.) with a company of men," from man (n.). Meaning "to take up a designated position on a ship" is first recorded 1690s. Meaning "behave like a man, act with courage" is from c. 1400. To man (something) out is from 1660s. Related: Manned; manning.

双语例句


1. She ran away with a man called McTavish last year.
去年,她和一个叫麦克塔维什的男人私奔了。

来自柯林斯例句

2. Nora was deflowered by a man who worked in a soda-water factory.
在汽水厂工作的一个男子夺去了诺拉的童贞。

来自柯林斯例句

3. He could just about see the little man behind the counter.
他勉强能看到柜台后面的小个子男人。

来自柯林斯例句

4. He then held the man in an armlock until police arrived.
然后他反扭住那名男子的手臂让他动弹不得,直到警察赶到。

来自柯林斯例句

5. A young man plunged from a sheer rock face to his death.
一名男青年从陡峭的岩壁上坠崖身亡。

来自柯林斯例句

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