Meaning: man

Illustrative Context

I saw a man and a woman.

Target Sense

• The most generic term for an adult human male.
• In most languages this will be the term that is directly paired with the term for the IE-CoR meaning woman, in basic phrases such as man or woman, man and woman.
• Avoid hypernym terms for people, of either sex, e.g. the German lexeme for this meaning is Mann, not Mensch (‘person’).
• The lexeme selected must be applicable to a particular adult human male, as in the illustrative context. In some languages the same basic word can also be used to refer generically to the human species, humans as distinct from animals, as in the (now declining) usage of English man without an article. This is not an issue provided that the term is the basic lexeme to refer to an adult human male, but do not provide a lexeme specific to this generic ‘species’ sense.
• Avoid terms that inherently carry more specific senses of any type.
  • Avoid terms specific to the place of a man in a relationship, marriage or kinship. In many languages, the most basic and generic term is also used as a translation equivalent to English husband, e.g. German Mann. This is not an issue; but do not enter terms specific to the sense of husband, e.g. French mari or époux.
  • Avoid specific terms for younger or older men.
  • Avoid weighted terms that inherently carry honorific or judgmental value: e.g. gentleman, French monsieur.
  • Avoid terms that specifically highlight perceived masculinity or virility.
  • Avoid terms that are used to focus more narrowly as explicitly male, rather than more equally both male and adult, e.g. the Spanish lexeme here is hombre, not varón.
• The neutral-register term: avoid literary or poetic words (particularly in the sense of hero), and slang or colloquial terms, e.g. bloke, guy, chap, fellow.
• See also the IE-CoR meaning woman.