Isle of Man
Man
- Isle of, an island of the British Isles, in the Irish Sea. 227 sq. mi. (588 sq. km). Capital: Douglas.
Isle of Man
- See (Isle of) Man 2
man
- an adult male human being, as distinguished from a woman
- (modifier) male; masculinea man child
- archaic a human being regardless of sex or age, considered as a representative of mankind; a person
- (sometimes capital) human beings collectively; mankindthe development of man
- Also called: modern man
- a member of any of the living races of Homo sapiens, characterized by erect bipedal posture, a highly developed brain, and powers of articulate speech, abstract reasoning, and imagination
- any extinct member of the species Homo sapiens, such as Cro-Magnon man
- a member of any of the extinct species of the genus Homo, such as Java man, Heidelberg man, and Solo man
- an adult male human being with qualities associated with the male, such as courage or virilitybe a man
- manly qualities or virtuesthe man in him was outraged
- a subordinate, servant, or employee contrasted with an employer or manager
- (in combination)the number of man-days required to complete a job
- (usually plural) a member of the armed forces who does not hold commissioned, warrant, or noncommissioned rank (as in the phrase officers and men)
- a member of a group, team, etc
- a husband, boyfriend, etcman and wife
- an expression used parenthetically to indicate an informal relationship between speaker and hearer
- a movable piece in various games, such as draughts
- Southern African slang any person: used as a term of address
- a vassal of a feudal lord
- as one man with unanimous action or response
- be one's own man to be independent or free
- he's your man he's the person needed (for a particular task, role, job, etc)
- man and boy from childhood
- sort out the men from the boys or separate the men from the boys to separate the experienced from the inexperienced
- to a man
- unanimously
- without exceptionthey were slaughtered to a man
- informal an exclamation or expletive, often indicating surprise or pleasure
- to provide with sufficient people for operation, defence, etcto man the phones
- to take one's place at or near in readiness for action
- falconry to induce (a hawk or falcon) to endure the presence of and handling by man, esp strangers
Word Origin
usage
Man1
- Black slang a White man or White men collectively, esp when in authority, in the police, or held in contempt
- slang a drug peddler
Man2
- Isle of Man an island in the British Isles, in the Irish Sea between Cumbria and Northern Ireland: a UK Crown Dependency (but not part of the United Kingdom), with its own ancient parliament, the Court of Tynwald; a dependency of Norway until 1266, when for a time it came under Scottish rule; its own language, Manx, became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived to some extent. Capital: Douglas. Pop: 86 159 (2013 est). Area: 588 sq km (227 sq miles)
Word Origin and History for isle of man
man
n.
Old English man, mann "human being, person (male or female); brave man, hero; servant, vassal," from Proto-Germanic *manwaz (cf. Old Saxon, Swedish, Dutch, Old High German man, German Mann, Old Norse maðr, Danish mand, Gothic manna "man"), from PIE root *man- (1) "man" (cf. 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 [cf. 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" (cf. Sanskrit vira-, Lithuanian vyras, Latin vir, Old Irish fer, Gothic wair) and *hner "man," a title more of honor than *uiHro (cf. Sanskrit nar-, Armenian ayr, Welsh ner, Greek aner).
MAN TRAP. A woman's commodity. ["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]
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.
Idioms and Phrases with isle of man
man
In addition to the idioms beginning with man
- man about town
- man in the street
- man of few words
- man of his word
- man of the moment
- man of the world
- many a
- many hands make light work
- many happy returns
- many is the
also see:
- as one (man)
- company man
- dead soldier (man)
- dirty joke (old man)
- every man for himself
- every man has his price
- girl (man) Friday
- hatchet man
- hired hand (man)
- ladies' man
- low man on the totem pole
- marked man
- new person (man)
- no man is an island
- odd man out
- (man) of few words
- one man's meat is another man's poison
- own man
- right-hand man
- see a man about a dog
- to a man
Also see undermen.