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-man
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Appendix:Variations of "man"
English
Etymology
From the noun man.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-man (plural -men, feminine -woman)
- Someone (possibly implied male) who is an expert in an area or who takes part in an activity.
- Someone (possibly implied male) who is employed or holds a position in an area.
- Someone (possibly implied male) who has special characteristics relating to a topic or area.
- Someone (possibly implied male) who has a particular nationality.
- A man whose name begins with the preceding letter.
- A ship which has special characteristics relating to a trade or area.
- Guinea + -man → Guineaman (“ship of the West African slave trade”)
- East India + -man → East Indiaman
- merchant + -man → merchantman
- Greenland + -man → Greenlandman (“a whaling ship”)
- China + -man → Chinaman (“sailing ship engaged in the Old China Trade”)
Usage notes
- To more explicitly include people regardless of gender, the suffix -person or a synonym, for example police officer instead of policeman, can be used.
- Frequently employed in the names of male comic book superheroes, e.g. Aquaman, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman.
- The pronunciation can either have a full vowel or a schwa, but they are not in free variation; some words formed with this suffix can be used with only one of the possible pronunciations.
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Descendants
See also descendants of man.
References
- “-man”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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