Etymologically
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man

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Pronunciation

Forms

man (indefinite pronoun, nominative only; the other cases are supplied by ein: einem, einen)[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German man, inherited from Old High German man, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *mann, inherited from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“person”): the nominative singular of the noun Mann “man, human being”, weakened into an impersonal pronoun.[4][3][5][1] The same development took place in Old English man and Old Frisian ma, and Pfeifer adds Old Saxon man, Middle Low German man and Dutch men.[4][3] The Grimms note that it had not yet happened in Gothic.[6]

All the sources point to the parallel of French on “one”, from Latin homō (“man, human being”).[4][3][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German man is used as a pronoun from the 8th century.[4][3] Köbler records it in glosses and in Tatian.[8] Pfeifer notes that the noun's sense “man, person” can still mostly be felt in Old High German, and only occasionally in Middle High German.[3]

Semantic evolution

The pronoun first meant “some person”, then “any person”, and today it covers both singular and plural ideas.[5][9] Since Middle High German it has been used only in the nominative; from Early New High German the other cases have been taken from the indefinite pronoun ein.[3][6] Older New High German sometimes still wrote it mann, like the noun.[6] Paul, following Adelung, dates the spelling of the noun with double n to the 16th century.[7]

In Early New High German man was also used to avoid addressing someone directly as du, er or sie, as in Man komme her “come here”; in 1802 Goethe called to the audience in the Weimar theatre Man lache nicht! “no laughing!”.[7] Dialects have the forms mer in East Central German and Bavaria and me in Alemannic.[6] As a feminine counterpart, frau is sometimes used.[7]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German man appears as an indefinite pronoun.[4][3]
  • 16th century – The noun begins to be spelled Mann, with double n.[7]
  • 1802 – Goethe calls Man lache nicht! to the audience in the Weimar theatre.[7]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. One, you: anyone, taken as standing for everyone: von dort oben hat man eine herrliche Aussicht “from up there one has a splendid view”.[2][1]
  2. Someone, some people, often in place of a passive: man hat die Kirche wieder aufgebaut “the church has been rebuilt”.[2]
  3. People in general, the public; also someone who keeps to social conventions: so etwas tut man nicht “that is not done”.[2][10]
  4. I, we, when the speaker merges with people in general.[2]
  5. You, he, she, to keep a distance and avoid a direct address: hat man sich gut erholt? “did we have a good rest?”.[2]

Usage notes

In northern colloquial German a different man means “just, only”, as in lass es man gut sein “just leave it”.[5][1] It comes from Middle Low German man “only”, which Kluge traces to Old Saxon newan “only, except”, a fusion of the negation with wan; it is recorded from the 18th century.[4][1] Writers from the north, such as Matthias Claudius, occasionally brought it into the written language.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 597
  5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 530
  6. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1520
  7. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1524