different between woman vs mana

English

Etymology

From Middle English woman, from earlier wimman, wifman. The Middle English forms are from Old English wiman, wimman, from w?fmann m (“woman; female servant”, literally “female person”), a compound of w?f (“woman”, whence English wife) +? mann (“person”, whence English man). For details on the pronunciation and spelling history, see the usage notes below.

Cognate with Scots woman, weman. Compare Saterland Frisian Wieuwmoanske (“female person; female human”). Similar constructions can be found in West Frisian frommes (“woman, girl”) (from frou and minske, literally "woman human").

A few alternative spellings (see below) respell the term so as not to contain man.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /?w?m?n/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?w?m?n/
• Hyphenation: wom?an
• Rhymes: -?m?n
• Homophone: women (some dialects, common in New Zealand and South Africa)

Noun

woman (plural women)

1. An adult female human.
   • 2012, Kate Welsh, Substitute Daddy (?ISBN):

     "There is nothing wrong with Melissa or the way she was raised. She is a sweet, kind, intelligent woman with a generous heart and more love for her child than you and Mother ever showed for either of your children."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:woman.
2. (collective) All female humans collectively; womankind.
   • 1972, Helen Reddy, "I Am Woman," first line:

     I am Woman, hear me roar / In numbers too big to ignore

   • 1997, Bob Grant, Let's Be Heard, page 42:

     For if modern woman is so intent on keeping her surname alive, why not demand it be passed along to her children?

   • 2011, Eileen Gray and the Design of Sapphic Modernity: Staying In, page 109:

     Unsurprisingly, if modern man is a sort of camera, modern woman is a picture.

3. A female person, usually an adult; a (generally adult) female sentient being, whether human, supernatural, elf, alien, etc.
   • 2003, Amelia Jones, The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader, Psychology Press (?ISBN), page 37:

     To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men.

   • 2007, Clifford B. Bowyer, The Siege of Zoldex, Silver Leaf Books, LLC (?ISBN), page 307:

     One of the elves, a woman with long auburn hair, was garbed identically to the two dwarves.

   • 2008, Christopher Paolini, Brisingr: Or The Seven Promises of Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Bjartskular - Inheritance Book Three (?ISBN), page 549:

     Clearing a space between the tables, the men tested their prowess against one another with feats of wrestling and archery and bouts with quarterstaves. Two of the elves, a man and a woman, demonstrated their skill with swordplay— […]

   • 2014, Oisin McGann, Kings of the Realm: Cruel Salvation, Penguin UK (?ISBN):

     There was a pair of burly dwarves – a woman and a man – bearing the markings of the formidable Thane Guards.

4. A wife (or sometimes a fiancée or girlfriend).
   • 1914, D. H. Lawrence, Study of Thomas Hardy and Other Essays, chapter 7: "Of Being and Not-Being":

     And then, when he lies with his woman, the man may concurrently be with God, and so get increase of his soul.

5. A female person who is extremely fond of or devoted to a specified type of thing. (Used as the last element of a compound.)
   • 2004, Hyveth Williams, Secrets of a Happy Heart: A Fresh Look at the Sermon on the Mount, page 70:

     Perhaps my problem is that I am a cat woman. I can't imagine any finicky feline (and they all are that at one time or another) slobbering over anyone, even a beloved owner, the way a dog does.

6. A female attendant or servant.
   • c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare:

     By her woman I sent your message.

Usage notes

The current pronunciation of the first vowel of the singular began to appear in western England in the 13th century under the rounding influence of the w, though the older pronunciation with /i/ (? modern /?/) remained in use into the 15th century. Although the vowel of the plural was sometimes also altered to /u/ (? modern /?/) beginning in the 14th century, the pronunciation with /?/ ultimately won out there, possibly under the influence of pairs like foot-feet. However, many speakers (especially of New Zealand English or South African English) have either retained or reinnovated the pronunciation of the plural with /?/. The modern spelling women for the plural is due to influence of the singular; it is attested from the 15th century.

For a time in the 16th and 17th centuries, the pronunciation of the singular sometimes drifted even further back towards /u?/ or /??~o?/ (? modern /o?~??/) and the plural sometimes drifted even further forward towards /i?/, leading to comparisons of the words to "woe man" or "we men".)

Alternative forms

• (feminist spellings; very rare:) (singular:) womxn, womyn, (plural:) womxn, womyn, wymyn
• (eye dialect, sometimes also used as feminist spellings:) (singular:) womin, wommon (also obsolete), womon (plural:) wimin, wimmin, wimmen, wymmyn
• (obsolete, 17th c.) weoman
• (obsolete) whoman
• (plural, informal or obsolete) wimen
• (plural, nonstandard, proscribed) womans
• (plural, nonstandard, African-American Vernacular) womens

Synonyms

• lady; female; see more at Thesaurus:woman

Hypernyms

• man (broad sense), human

Hyponyms

Coordinate terms

• (gender): man
• (age): girl

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• Antigua and Barbuda Creole English: uman
• Aukan: uman
• Krio: uman
• Sranan Tongo: uma; oema (superseded)
• Torres Strait Creole: oman
• ? Japanese: ???? (?man)
• ? Korean: ?? (umeon)
• ? Volapük: vom

Translations

See woman/translations § Noun.

References

• woman on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Woman (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

woman (third-person singular simple present womans, present participle womaning, simple past and past participle womaned)

1. To staff with female labor.
   • 2010, Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale, page 77

     The information desk is now manned (womaned) by someone whose main job is to help you reserve time slots for the computers or guide you through the arduous process of “logging on.”

2. (transitive) To make effeminate or womanish.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, III. ii. 50:

     I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief / That the first face of neither on the start / Can woman me unto't.

3. (transitive) To furnish with, or unite to, a woman.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, III. iv. 191:

     And think it no addition, nor my wish, / To have him see me woman'd.

4. (transitive) To call (a person) "woman" in a disrespectful fashion.

See also

References

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?voman]

Noun

woman m

1. obsolete form of oman (“elecampane”), obsolete spelling of voman (“elecampane”)

Declension

Middle English

Noun

woman (plural women)

1. Alternative form of womman

Upper Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *oman?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?u?oman]

Noun

woman m

1. inula, elecampane (Inula spp., especially Inula helenium)

Declension

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??.n?/, /?mæ-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?.n?/, /?mæ-/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?m?.n?/, /?ma-/
• Rhymes: -??n?
• Hyphenation: ma?na

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Maori mana, ultimately from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Noun

mana (usually uncountable, plural manas)

1. Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people. [from 19th c.]
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in 16th and 17th Century England, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, OCLC 71368859; republished London: Folio Society, 2012, OCLC 805007047, page 193:

     But in popular estimation their essential virtue derived from the personal mana of the sovereign.
2. (fantasy role-playing games) Magical power.

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

mana (plural manas)

1. Alternative form of mina (“ancient unit of weight or currency”).

Etymology 3

Noun

mana (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of manna.

Further reading

• mana on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Nama, naam

Bassa

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [m??ã?]

Noun

mana

1. a blessing

Verb

mana

1. to swallow

References

• Bassa-English Dictionary
• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

Bikol Central

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ma.na/

Noun

mana

1. heirloom, inheritance, heritage

Verb

mana (infinitive magmana)

1. to inherit

Blagar

Noun

mana

1. place

References

• Antoinette Schapper, The Papuan Languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar: Volume 1 (2014), p. 162
• Hein Steinhauer, "Going" and "Coming" in the Blagar of Dolap (Pura–Alor–Indonesia)

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /?ma.n?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /?ma.na/

Interjection

mana

1. sorry, pardon (I did not hear you)

Synonyms

• perdó?

Verb

mana

1. third-person singular present indicative form of manar
2. second-person singular imperative form of manar

Czech

Etymology

From Late Latin manna

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?mana]
• Hyphenation: ma?na
• Rhymes: -ana

Noun

mana

1. manna

Declension

Further reading

• mana in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• mana in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Denya

Noun

màn?

1. water

Further reading

• Tanyi Eyong Mbuagbaw, The Denya Noun Class System, in the Journal of West African Languages

Fijian

Noun

mana

1. sign, omen
2. miracle, wonder (use cakamana to specify this meaning)
3. antidote (use mana kina to specify this meaning)
4. (biblical) manna

Adverb

mana

1. so be it, let it be so (addressed to a heathen deity)

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?n?/, [?m?n?]
• Rhymes: -?n?
• Syllabification: ma?na

Etymology 1

Unknown. Possibly a back-formation of manala, which could then originate from maan alla (“under the ground”), but this is untenable if the proposed Samic cognates are correct (such as Southern Sami muonese (“(good or bad) spirit, omen”)).

Noun

mana

1. death, Death (personification of death)

Declension

Synonyms

• (death): kuolema, kuolo, tuoni

Derived terms

• nouns: manala (if not back-formation)
• verbs: manata, mennä manalle, mennä manan majoille

Etymology 2

From Maori mana.

Noun

mana

1. mana

Declension

Anagrams

• Maan, maan

Garo

Verb

mana

1. to rebuke

Hadza

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mana/

Noun

mana m

1. a piece of meat

See also manako (meat), manabee (body), manae (to go to where there is meat)

Hawaiian

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Noun

mana

1. religious power

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ma?na/
• Rhymes: -a?na

Etymology 1

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *man?n?. Possibly borrowed through Middle Low German or German mahnen (“to urge”).

Verb

mana (weak verb, third-person singular past indicative manaði, supine manað)

1. to dare (someone to do something)

Conjugation

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English mana, from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Noun

mana n (genitive singular mana, no plural)

1. (gaming, role playing) mana

Declension

Indonesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.na/

Adverb

mana

1. where, which

Derived terms

• dari mana
• di mana
• ke mana
• yang mana

Further reading

• “mana” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish manadh, from a Proto-Celtic derivative of Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”), the source of Latin moneo (“I advise, warn”).

Noun

mana m (genitive singular mana, nominative plural manaí)

1. portent, sign
2. attitude, outlook
3. motto

Declension

Mutation

Further reading

• "mana" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

References

Italiot Greek

Noun

mana f

1. mother

Japanese

Romanization

mana

1. R?maji transcription of ??
2. R?maji transcription of ??

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?ma?.na?/, [?mä?nä?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?ma.na/, [?m??n?]

Verb

m?n?

1. second-person singular present active imperative of m?n?

Latvian

Pronoun

mana

1. genitive singular masculine form of mans
2. nominative singular feminine form of mans
3. vocative singular feminine form of mans

Verb

mana

1. 3rd person singular present indicative form of man?t
2. 3rd person plural present indicative form of man?t
3. (with the particle lai) 3rd person singular imperative form of man?t
4. (with the particle lai) 3rd person plural imperative form of man?t

Malay

Pronunciation

• (Johor-Selangor) IPA^(key): /man?/
• (Riau-Lingga) IPA^(key): /mana/
• Rhymes: -an?, -n?, -?

Adverb

mana (Jawi spelling ????)

1. where (incomplete without ke, di or dari)
2. which (used with yang)

Usage notes

Only comes in the following form di mana (“at, in where”), ke mana (“to where”) and yang mana (“which one”).

Further reading

• “mana” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Maori

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Noun

mana

1. power; mana
   • 2006, Joanne Barker, Sovereignty Matters, page 208:

     In 1979 a gathering of elders at the Waananga kaumatua affirmed te reo Maori “Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Maori” the language is the life principle of Maori mana.

Descendants

• ? English: mana

Middle Norwegian

Etymology

From Middle Low German [Term?].

Verb

mana

1. to encourage, urge

Descendants

• Norwegian Nynorsk: mana, mane
• Norwegian Bokmål: mane

References

• “mana” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Neapolitan

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin manus.

Noun

mana f

1. hand

Northern Sami

Pronunciation

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /?mana/

Verb

mana

1. inflection of mannat:
   1. present indicative connegative
   2. second-person singular imperative
   3. imperative connegative

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Middle Norwegian mana, from Middle Low German [Term?].

Alternative forms

• mane (e infinitive)

Verb

mana (present tense manar, past tense mana, past participle mana, passive infinitive manast, present participle manande, imperative man)

1. to encourage, urge

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

mana

1. definite singular of man

References

• “mana” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Norse

Noun

mana

1. indefinite genitive plural of m?n

Oromo

Noun

mana

1. house

Pali

Alternative forms

Noun

mana m or n

1. Interpretation of many of the inflectional forms of manas (“mind”)
2. vocative singular of manas

Portuguese

Noun

mana f (plural manas)

1. (colloquial, familiar) sister

Quechua

Particle

mana

1. not
2. no

See also

• -chu

Rapa Nui

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Noun

mana

1. power
2. divine authority

Sambali

Noun

mana

1. heritage

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology 1

From Turkish mahana, a dialectic variant of Turkish behane from Persian ?????? (bahâne, “excuse”). Related to Macedonian ????? (maana), Bulgarian ?????? (mahana), Albanian mahanë - all borrowed from Ottoman Turkish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??na/
• Hyphenation: ma?na
• Rhymes: -??na

Noun

mána f (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. flaw, fault, shortcoming

Declension

Derived terms

• verbs: manisati

Etymology 2

From Latin manna, from Ancient Greek ????? (mánna), from Hebrew ??? (m?n, “'manna”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mâna/
• Hyphenation: ma?na

Noun

m?na f (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. manna

Declension

Etymology 3

Borrowed from English mana, from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mâna/
• Hyphenation: ma?na

Noun

m?na f (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. mana

Declension

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mana/, [?ma.na]

Verb

mana

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of manar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of manar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of manar.

Swedish

Etymology

From Low German manen, from Old Saxon manon, from Proto-Germanic *man?n?, cognate with Old English manian (“to remind”).

Verb

mana (present manar, preterite manade, supine manat, imperative mana)

1. to encourage or urge someone

Conjugation

See also

• anmana
• förmana
• maning
• uppmana

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ma.na/

Noun

mana

1. heirloom, inheritance, heritage

Verb

mana (infinitive magmana)

1. to inherit

Tahitian

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Noun

mana

1. power
2. respect given in accordance to power

Tongan

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.na/

Noun

mana

1. miracle

Tunggare

Noun

mana

1. water

References

• C. L. Voorhoeve, 1975. Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, p.120
• Bill Palmer, editor (2018) The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide, Padua: De Gruyter Mouton, OCLC 1050042990

Turkish

Etymology

From Arabic ???????? (ma?nan) (plural: ???????? (ma??nin)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma??a?/, /ma?na?/

Noun

mânâ (definite accusative manay?, plural manalar)

1. meaning

Declension

Synonyms

• anlam

Volapük

Noun

mana

1. genitive singular of man

Xavante

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [m??n??]

Etymology

From Proto-Central Jê *m??n?? (“tail, penis”) < Proto-Cerrado *mbyn (“tail, penis”) < Proto-Jê *mbyn (“tail”).

Noun

mana

1. Form of bö (utterance-medial variant)

Yawa

Noun

mana

1. water

References

• Andrew Pawley, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-Speaking Peoples (2005)