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« mann » comes from Old English and stands for a human being. « wïfmann », literally "female human", led to « wife ». « were » means man and comes from German
by hashar 10mo ago
« mann » comes from Old English and stands for a human being.
« wïfmann », literally "female human", led to « wife ».
« were » means man and comes from Germanic and I don't think « weremann » has ever been a thing.
- binary132 10mo agoBlew my mind when I found out “world” is a direct derivative of the word “were”.
- AdhemarVandamme 10mo ago“world” is derived from “were” + “eald” (old), and meant “the age of humans”, which was distinguished from the age of the Gods, when the Æsir and Vanir dominated, and the age of the Jötnar. I find it interesting how the term shifted from a (mythical) temporal concept to a spatial concept, to now often a social concept (e.g. the Fourth World).