Etymologically
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manch

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Pronunciation

  • /manç/, [manç], [-ɲç][1]

Forms

manch (indefinite pronoun and indefinite numeral; inflected mancher, manche, manches; uninflected manch before an adjective or ein)[2][1] The spelling with ch arose in Central German in Middle High German times, first at the end of the word; from the 15th century it spread inside the word (mancher), and after Luther, who used only such forms, it became general in the 16th century.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German manec, inherited from Old High German manag (“many a, much”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *managaz (“many”).[5][3][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐍃 (manags, “much, many”), Old Norse mangr, Old English manig (now English many), Old Frisian manich and Old Saxon manag, with Dutch menig and Swedish mången.[5][3][6] The modern final /ç/ comes from the dialects that pronounce a final ⟨g⟩ as ⟨ch⟩; the old consonant is kept in mannigfach and mannigfaltig.[5][1][7]

Outside Germanic the closest words are Old Church Slavonic мъногъ (mŭnogŭ, “much, many”), Russian много (mnógo, “much”) and Old Irish menic (“often”);[5][3][6] Pfeifer sets up Proto-Indo-European *menegh- “abundant, many”, with variants.[3] Kroonen holds that the forms cannot be reduced to one Indo-European source and favours a loan from a non-Indo-European language of northern Europe, supported by a matching Finnish word that cannot come from Germanic.[6][1] Kluge also compares, with an unclear sound relation, Latin omnis (“all, every”) and Hittite humant- (“all”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German manag is recorded from the 8th century in glosses and in the Benedictine Rule, Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and other texts.[8][5] It meant “many a, much, great, mighty”, in the plural “many, numerous” and “people”, and glossed Latin multus, plurimus and nonnullus.[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective with the sense “much, many”, which the noun Menge keeps, early came to be used as a pronoun, and in Early New High German this use prevailed.[3][7] Paul still finds the old sense “many” in Wieland and Gottfried Keller and in emphatic so manch and gar manch.[10] The uninflected manch before an adjective (manch gutes Herz) is old, while manch ein Held became widespread from the end of the 19th century, and southwestern German also has ein mancher.[10]

Mancherlei is a contracted genitive plural of Middle High German maniger leie, recorded as mancherley in 1469, and manchmal “now and then” dates from the 16th century, found in Luther.[10][3]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German manag.[5][8]
  • 8th–9th century – The variant manīg.[3]
  • 10th century – managfaltīg “manifold”.[3]
  • 15th century – The spelling ch spreads inside the word.[3]
  • 1469 – mancherley.[10]
  • 16th century – manchmal; the ch forms become general after Luther.[3][4]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. (singular, mancher, manche, manches; uninflected manch) many a, one person or thing that adds up with others of its kind to a considerable number: Manch einer hat das schon bereut.;[2][1] so manches Mal.[2][1]
  2. (plural, manche) some, several, a number that is not small: Manche Gäste blieben bis Mitternacht.[2][1]

Word family

  • mancherlei
  • manchmal
  • mannigfach
  • mannigfaltig

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1524
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 597
  6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 540
  8. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 94
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 214
  10. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer