Mannaz or Manwaz is the Proto-Germanic term for "man", in the gender-neutral sense of "person, human being".
The word developed into Old English man, mann "human being, person," (c.f. also German Mann, Old Norse mağr, Gothic manna "man").
It is derived from a Proto-Indo-European base *man- (cf. Sanskrit/Avestan manu-, Russian muzh "man, male"). Sometimes, the word is connected with the root *men- "to think" (cognate to mind). 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 the twentieth century, the generic meaning of "man" declined still further (but survives in compounds "mankind", "everyman", "no-man", etc), and it is probable that future generations will see it as totally archaic, and use it solely to mean "adult male". Interestingly, exactly the same thing has happened to the Latin word homo: in most Romance languages, homme, uomo, hombre, homem have come to refer mainly to males, with residual generic meaning.
Mannaz is also the reconstructed name of the m-rune .
See also
