manhood

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe state or condition of being a human being.

   He feared the speedy decline of all manhood.

   1 more example

   Thou seemest human and divine, ⁠The highest, holiest manhood, thou.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Prologue”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: humanity

2. countableuncountableThe state or condition of being a man, as contrasted with being a boy, woman, girl, or nonbinary.

   He was a strapping youth poised on the brink of manhood.

   2 more examples

   Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was nothing between youth and age.

   1936 Feb. 15, Ernest Hemingway, letter to Maxwell Perkins

   The Caves of Ajanta, the medieval Courts of Love, the epithalamia of the erotic poets [...] all testify to the glorification of manhood, the supremacy of the sex motif.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page iii

3. countableuncountableAll of the men of a given place, area, or any human subgroup (ethnicity, nation, race, religion, family, work crew or ship's crew, etc.) regarded collectively.

   During the Second World War, Russia lost a great percentage of its young manhood, giving rise to a great wave of widowhood in the country.

   5 more examples

   (exclusively and universally: only synonymous in cases for which women are excluded, and when the meaning of manhood is universal or worldwide)

   […] it was not until the year 1870, after the republic had been completely drained of its manhood and resources, that the long war was terminated by the capture and death of Lopez […]

   1908, L. Brent Vaughan (Editor), The New Standard History of the World Volume 2, page 809

   But he thanked them all the same for the good example they had shown the county and the country, that in time of trouble, in time of difficulty, and in time of doubt, the manhood of this district and of the surrounding district, and the manhood of Clan Desmond should show their faith in the old grand ideals of a free and united Ireland (cheers).

   1914, D.J. Griffin, Hon. Sec. Castleisland, Kerry, Ireland, Article from the Newspaper "Ireland", Wednesday, November 11, 1914 Title: "Kerry Staunch and True, Great Meeting in Castleisland"

   But nosin’ down the roadway past the bones of other wrecks / Goes the doughty little gunboat with her manhood on her decks!

   1916, Dana Burnet (American Poet), Excerpt from the poem: "The Gunboat"

   The greatest product of any country is her manhood. What if she can boast of coffers bursting with gold, when she raises men with earthen hearts?

   1923, Douglas Wood Miller, Practical Exercises in News Writing and Editing, page 112

   Synonyms: mankind · Antonyms: womanhood, womankind

In a sentence

He feared the speedy decline of all manhood.

Where it comes from

1. Middle Englishmanhode
2. Englishmanhood

From Middle English manhode, also manhede (> obsolete English manhead), equivalent to man + -hood. Cognate with Middle Dutch manheit (“manhood”), Middle Low German manheit (whence German Low German Mannheit (“manhood”)), German Mannheit (“manhood”).