In English, lower case man (pl. men) refers to an adult human male (the term boy is the usual term for a human male child or adolescent). Although men typically have a male reproductive system, some intersex people with ambiguous genitals, and biologically female transgender people, may also be classified or self-identify as a "man".
The term manhood is used to refer to masculinity, the various qualities and characteristics attributed to men such as strength and male sexuality.
Read more about Man: Etymology, Age and Terminology, Biology and Gender, Masculinity, Culture and Gender Roles
Famous quotes containing the word man:
“A man must thank his defects, and stand in some terror of his talents. A transcendent talent draws so largely on his forces as to lame him; a defect pays him revenues on the other side.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A man’s women folk, whatever their outward show of respect for his merit and authority, always regard him secretly as an ass, and with something akin to pity. His most gaudy sayings and doings seldom deceive them; they see the actual man within, and know him for a shallow and pathetic fellow. In this fact, perhaps, lies one of the best proofs of feminine intelligence, or, as the common phrase makes it, feminine intuition.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“What has a writer to be bombastic about? Whatever good a man may write is the consequence of accident, luck, or surprise, and nobody is more surprised than an honest writer when he makes a good phrase or says something truthful.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)