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A man is a male human. The term man (irregular plural: men) is used for an adult human male, with the term boy being the usual term for a human male child or adolescent human male. However, man can refer to humanity as a whole. more...

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Etymology

The English word man (from Proto-Germanic mannaz "man, person") and words derived from it can designate any or even all of the human race regardless of their gender or age. This is indeed the oldest usage of man in English. This derives from a Proto-Indo-European root *man- or mon- meaning "man". Cognates from outside the Germanic languages include Sanskrit Manu and Russian муж (muž) meaning "man" or "husband".

Restricted use in the sense "adult male" only began to occur in late Old English, around 1000 AD, and the word formerly expressing male sex, wer had died out by 1300 (but survives in e.g. were-wolf and were-gild). The original sense of the word is preserved in mankind, from Old English mancynn.

In Old English the words wer and wīf (also wǣpmann and wīfmann) were used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, while mann was gender neutral. In Middle English man displaced wer as term for "male human," whilst wyfman (which eventually evolved into woman) was retained for "female human". Man does continue to carry its original sense of "human" however, resulting in an asymmetry sometimes criticized as sexist.

The Mars symbol (Unicode: ♂), sign of the planet Mars, and of the Roman god Mars and Greek god Ares, is also the symbol used in biology for the male gender. It is the alchemic symbol for iron and is a sign of masculinity. The sign is interpreted as the spear and shield from the war god Mars/Ares.

Age and terminology

Manhood is the period in a male's life after he has transitioned from boyhood, at least physically, during puberty.

A boy is a male human child. For many, the word man implies a certain degree of maturity and responsibility that young men in particular often feel unprepared for; yet they may also feel too old to be called a boy. For this reason, many avoid using either man or boy to describe a young man and prefer colloquial terms such as bloke, lad, chap, fellow, guy or dude.

Biology and gender

Humans exhibit sexual dimorphism in many characteristics, many of which have no direct link to reproductive ability, however most of these characteristic do have a role in sexual attraction. Most expressions of sexual dimorphism in humans are found in height, weight, and body structure, though there are always examples that do not follow the overall pattern. For example, men tend to be taller than women, but there are many people of both sexes who are in the mid-height range for the species.

Read more at Wikipedia.org