men

See also: Appendix:Variations of "men"

Languages (39)

Translingual • English

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Basque • Chuukese • Cornish • Crimean Tatar • Danish • Dutch • Faroese • Fula • Haitian Creole • Icelandic • Italian • Japanese • Kazakh • Louisiana Creole • Macaguán • Mandarin • Middle Dutch • Middle English • Mòcheno • Norwegian Bokmål • Norwegian Nynorsk • Old Irish • Old Norse • Pohnpeian • Salar • Sherbro • Spanish • Sumerian • Swedish • Turkish • Turkmen • Uyghur • Uzbek • Vietnamese • Volapük • Welsh • Wutunhua

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Page categories

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Mende.

Symbol

men

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Mende.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Mende terms

English

Etymology

From Middle English men, from Old English menn (“people”), from Proto-Germanic *manniz, nominative plural of Proto-Germanic *mann- (“person”). Cognate with German Männer (“men”), Danish mænd (“men”), Swedish män (“men”). More at man.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛn/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛn
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /mɪn/
  • Rhymes: -ɪn
  • Homophone: min

Noun

men

English Wikipedia has an article on:

men

Wikipedia

1. plural of man
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.

Noun

men pl (plural only)

1. (collective, dated, fantasy) (The) people, humanity, man(kind).
   • 1776, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America:

     We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

2. (collective, military) Enlisted personnel (as opposed to commissioned officers).

   "Muster up the men in the barracks at 0600," the lieutenant said to his sergeant.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:men.

Derived terms

• antimen
• formenism
• man among men
• menfolk
• menfolks
• meninism
• meninist
• menkind
• menless
• menstealer
• menswear
• Menver
• merby
• smartman
• three-men-in-a-boat

Related terms

• mennish

Translations

human people

Arabic: نَاس m pl (nās) Catalan: homes (ca) m pl Chinese: Mandarin: 人們 / 人们 (zh) (rénmen), 人 (zh) (rén) Czech: lidé (cs) m pl Dutch: mensen (nl) m pl, men (collective singular) Esperanto: homoj (eo) Estonian: inimesed (et) pl, rahvas (et) French: gens (fr) m pl, hommes (fr) m pl, on (fr) German: Menschen (de) m pl, Leute (de) m pl Greek: άνθρωπος (el) m (ánthropos) Hindi: लोग (hi) pl (log) Italian: genti (it) m pl Japanese: 人々 (ja) (ひとびと, hitobito) Korean: 사람들 (saramdeul) Latin: homines m pl Macedonian: луѓе (luǵe) Maricopa: 'iipash Occitan: òmes (oc) m pl, òmis m pl Polish: ludzie (pl) m pers pl Portuguese: homens (pt) m pl Romanian: oameni (ro) m pl Russian: лю́ди (ru) m pl (ljúdi) Slovak: ľudia (sk) m pl Somali: rag Swahili: wabinadamu Urdu: لوگ pl (log) Uzbek: kishilar

Basque

Noun

men

1. A command

Chuukese

Adverb

men

1. softer form of fakkun (“very”)

Cornish

Etymology 1

From Proto-Brythonic *maɣɨn, from Proto-Celtic *maginos. Cognate with Welsh maen.

Noun

men m (plural meyn)

1. stone

Usage notes

• This word mutates irregularly to veyn in the plural after the definite article. It shares this behaviour with margh (“horse”) and no other word.

Derived terms

• men bedh (“gravestone, tombstone”)
• men bras (“megalith”)
• men du (“jet (stone)”)
• men growan (“granite”)
• men kov (“monument”)
• men kowas (“meteorite”)
• men melin (“millstone”)
• men paper gwelsigow (“rock paper scissors”)
• men-pobas (“griddle”)

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Possibly from Etymology 1.”)

Adjective

men

1. eager
2. fluent
3. outspoken
4. vigorous

Derived terms

• tooth men (“fast”)

Mutation

Mutation of men

unmutated	soft	aspirate	hard	mixed	mixed after 'th
men	ven	unchanged	unchanged	fen	ven

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *ben (“I”). Compare Turkish ben (“I”).

Pronoun

men

1. I

Declension

Declension of Crimean Tatar personal pronouns

	singular				plural
	1st person	2nd person	3rd person		1st person	2nd person	3rd person
nominative	men	sen	o		biz	siz	olar
accusative	meni	seni	onı		bizni	sizni	olarnı
dative	maña	saña	oña		bizge	sizge	olarǧa
locative	mende	sende	onda		bizde	sizde	olarda
ablative	menden	senden	ondan		bizden	sizden	olardan
genitive	menim	seniñ	onıñ		bizim	siziñ	olarnıñ

Derived terms

• mence

References

• “men”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

Danish

Etymology 1

From Old Norse mein, from Proto-Germanic *mainą (“damage, hurt, injustice, sin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meːn/, [meːˀn]

Noun

men or mén n or c (singular definite menet or menen, plural indefinite men, plural definite menene)

1. injury

Etymology 2

Same origin as Old Norse meðan (“while”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛn/, [men]

Conjunction

men

1. but
2. (as a noun) but, catch, hitch, snag

   Jeg kan høre, der er et men.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛn/, /mə(n)/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: men
• Rhymes: -ɛn, -ən

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch men, an unstressed variety of man (“man”). Accordingly, originally pronounced with [ə]; now predominantly with a full vowel [ɛ], a spelling pronunciation common especially in those areas where the word is chiefly literary. Compare German man, Low German men, Middle English men (indefinite pronoun).

Pronoun

men

1. (indefinite, subject) one, you, they, everyone; humanity, (the) people, the public opinion

   Men zegt dat... ― People say that.... It is said that...

   Men weet nooit wat er gaat gebeuren. ― You never know what’s going to happen.

Usage notes

• When not used as a subject, men must be replaced with je (“you”) or sometimes ze (“them”).
• The word as such is very common in Limburg and some other areas, where it is part of the local dialects. Elsewhere it is not downright rare but perceived as formal and predominantly replaced with je and ze even as a subject (similarly to English one).

Related terms

• iemand
• niemand

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

men

1. inflection of mennen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Faroese

Etymology 1

See møna

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [meːn] (noun)
• IPA^(key): [mɛnː] (conjunction)

  Homophone: menn

Noun

men f (genitive singular menar, plural menir or menar)

1. (rare, Mykines) The spinal cord

Declension

f2	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	men	menin	menir	menirnar
accusative	men	menina	menir	menirnar
dative	men	menini	menum	menunum
genitive	menar	menarinnar	mena	menanna

f6	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	men	menin	menar	menarnar
accusative	men	menina	menar	menarnar
dative	men	menini	menum	menunum
genitive	menar	menarinnar	mena	menanna

Synonyms

• (common) møna

Etymology 2

From Danish men derived from Old Norse meðan (“while”).

Conjunction

men

1. but

Fula

Pronoun

men

1. first person plural exclusive;short form we, us

Usage notes

• Used in Pular.

Dialectal variants

• min (Pulaar, Adamawa, Dageeja, Fouta-toro, Liptaako, Sokoto, Zaria, Gombe)

See also

• enen
• menen
• meɗen
• hiɗen

References

• Oumar Bah, Dictionnaire Pular-Français, Avec un index français-pular, Webonary.org, SIL International, 2014.
• Ritsuko Miyamoto (1993), “A Study of Fula Dialects : Examining the Continuous/Stative Constructions”, in Senri Ethnological Studies‎, volume 35, →DOI, pages 215-230

Haitian Creole

Etymology 1

From French main (“hand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̃/

Noun

men

1. hand

Etymology 2

From French mais (“but”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̃/

Conjunction

men

1. but

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse men, from Proto-Germanic *manją. Compare Old English mene.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛːn/
• Rhymes: -ɛːn

Noun

men n (genitive singular mens, nominative plural men)

1. necklace, especially one with a pendant

Declension

Declension of men (neuter)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	men	menið	men	menin
accusative	men	menið	men	menin
dative	meni	meninu	menum	menunum
genitive	mens	mensins	mena	menanna

Derived terms

• hálsmen (“pendant necklace”)

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmen/
• Rhymes: -en
• Hyphenation: mén

Adverb

men (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of meno

• See also: in men che niente, in men che non si dica

Contraction

men

1. (literary, archaic) contraction of me ne
   • 1723, Anton Maria Salvini, transl., Iliade [Iliad]‎, Milan: Giovanni Gaetano Tartini, Santi Franchi, translation of Ἰλιάς (Iliás) by Homer, Book I, page 9:

     Men vo alle navi, appo aver fatte in guerra
     ben gravi, e dure, e faticose imprese

     I return to the ships, after grave, hard and laborious war endeavours

Japanese

Romanization

men

1. Rōmaji transcription of めん

Kazakh

Alternative scripts

Arabic	مەن
Cyrillic	мен
Latin	men

Pronoun

men

1. Latin spelling of мен (men, “I”)

Conjunction

men

1. Latin spelling of мен (men, “and”)

Louisiana Creole

Etymology

From French main (“hand”).

Noun

men

1. hand

Macaguán

Noun

men

1. water
2. river

References

• Edgar Buenaventura, Observaciones preliminares acerca del idioma macaguán: Apuntes culturales, fonología, apuntes gramaticales, vocabulário macaguán – español (1993)

Mandarin

Romanization

men (men⁵ / men⁰, Zhuyin ˙ㄇㄣ)

1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 們 / 们

Romanization

men

1. nonstandard spelling of mēn
2. nonstandard spelling of mén
3. nonstandard spelling of mèn
4. nonstandard spelling of mê̄n

Usage notes

• 《汉语拼音方案》 (Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet) defines a standard pronunciation for each letter in Hanyu Pinyin with Zhuyin. ㄝ (/⁠ɛ⁠/) typically only occurs in syllables with an initial glide (e.g. ㄧㄝ (-ie /⁠i̯ɛ⁠/)), where it is romanized as e. When it occurs in syllables without an initial glide, however, it is romanized as ê in order to distinguish it from ㄜ (-e /⁠ɤ⁠/). Such instances are rare, and are only found in interjections or neologisms.
• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Middle Dutch

Etymology

An unstressed variety of man.

Pronoun

men

1. someone
2. one, they, you, people; impersonal pronoun.

Inflection

This pronoun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: men
• Limburgish: me

Further reading

• “men”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “men (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I