Etymologically
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manpower

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmænˌpaʊə(r)/, /ˈmænˌpaə(r)/[1]
  • US: /ˈmænˌpaʊɚ/[1]

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]

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