Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to men; masculine.
  • adjective Imitative or suggestive of a man rather than a woman.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 1. Of the human species; of the nature of man; human in kind.
  • Characteristic of man; natural to the human species; human in quality.
  • Characteristic of or resembling the males of the human kind; hence, as applied to a woman, masculine; unwomanly.
  • Simulating manhood; having the air or appearance of manliness; characteristic of the mature age of manhood.
  • Fond of men; addicted to the society of men.
  • Synonyms Male, Manly, etc. See masculine.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Resembling a human being in form or nature; human.
  • adjective Resembling, suitable to, or characteristic of, a man, manlike, masculine.
  • adjective obsolete Fond of men; -- said of a woman.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or suitable for a man
  • adjective obsolete Resembling a human being in form or nature; human.
  • adjective obsolete, of a woman Fond of men.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective resembling or imitative of or suggestive of a man rather than a woman
  • adjective characteristic of a man as distinguished from a woman

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English mannisshe, mannysh, from earlier mennish ("human", also "humanity, mankind"), from Old English mennisc ("human, natural, humane", also "mankind, humnan race"), from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz (“human, humanity”), from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man, human, person”), from Proto-Indo-European *mAnw- (“man”), equivalent to man +‎ -ish. Cognate with Dutch mens ("human"), German Mensch ("human being"), Danish mennesk ("human"), Icelandic manneskju ("person, human being"). More at man, mennish.

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