manpower

Etymology

It is formed from English man + power,^[2][3][4][5] after horsepower.^[2] The verb is a conversion of the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Human energy, the power of a person at work; formerly also a unit of power, reckoned as between an eighth and a tenth of a horsepower: 1825.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the sense "the power of a man in work" to 1855, and notes that it was proposed as a unit of measure of power in 1824.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was first a measure of physical effort, modelled on horsepower;^[2][3] Collins still gives a unit of power of about 75 watts.^[7] During the First World War it came to mean the number of people available for work or military service, from 1917 (in Winston Churchill),^[2][3] and human labour in general seen as a resource that can be counted.^[2] As a verb it meant in the southern Appalachians to move something by human effort, from 1913;^[2][8] in Australia and New Zealand during the Second World War, to direct a person into essential non-military work;^[2][9] since 1950, to provide a business or project with workers.^[2] In Britain the Manpower Services Commission was set up in 1974,^[2] and in Canada Manpower was a government job referral department.^[10]

Timeline

• 1824 – proposed as a unit of power.^[3]
• 1825 – human energy; a unit of power.^[2]
• 1890 – adjective, of a vehicle driven by human energy (now rare).^[2]
• 1913 – verb, southern US, to move by human effort.^[2][8]
• 1917 – the number of people available for work or military service.^[2][3]
• 1950 – verb, to staff with workers.^[2]
• 1952 – verb, Australia and New Zealand, to direct into war work.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The number of people available or needed for work, military service or a particular task; the workforce: The firm lacked the manpower to finish the bridge on time.^{[7][11][2][4]}
2. Power supplied by human physical strength rather than by machines.^[7][11][2]
3. A unit of power based on the rate at which a person can work, about 75 watts.^[7][4]

Verb

1. (southern US) To move something by human effort: We had to manpower the cart out of the ditch.^[2][8]
2. (Australia and New Zealand, historical) During the Second World War, to direct a person into essential non-military work.^[2][9]

Related words

• horsepower
• man
• power

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
9. ^ a b Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Toronto: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin