Etymology

-man

Today it means: Someone (possibly implied male) who is an expert in an area or who takes part in an activity. Full definition →

Middle English man ← Old English mann ← Proto-West Germanic *mann
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mon-
  2. Proto-Germanic*mann-
  3. Proto-West Germanic*mann
  4. Old Englishmann
  5. Middle Englishman
  6. English today-man

From Middle English -man, from the noun man.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.