maður

From Old Norse maðr, from Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mánu- (“person”), *man-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛaːvʊɹ/

  Rhymes: -ɛaːvʊɹ

  Homophone: magur

maður m (genitive singular mans, plural menn)

1. man, male
2. husband
3. human being, people
4. sailor
5. member of a group
6. (chess) chessman (except pawns)

From Old Norse maðr, from Proto-Germanic *mann-, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mánu- (“person”), *man-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaːðʏr/

  Audio (Iceland, Kópavogur)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -aːðʏr

maður m (genitive singular manns, nominative plural menn)

1. man, human being ^syn.

   Það tilheyrir náttúru mannsins að hata þá sem hann hefur sært.

   It belongs to human nature to hate those that he has hurt.

   • Timothy 2:11-12 (English, Icelandic)

     Konan á að læra í kyrrþey, í allri undirgefni. Ekki leyfi ég konu að kenna eða taka sér vald yfir manninum, heldur á hún að vera kyrrlát.

     A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.

2. (mainly used with a definite article) husband ^syn.

   Þetta er Geir, maðurinn minn.

   This is Geir, my husband.

3. (chess) chessman ^syn.

   Færðu manninn þinn.

   Move your chessman.

The noun maður is irregular in that when plural without the definite article it declines in the nominative as menn, but with the definite article suffixed to the word it declines on the other hand as mennir, making it be mennirnir in the definite nominative plural rather than menninir. This mennir is most likely a leftover of an older spelling from Proto-Norse that survived only attached to the definite article.

• (human being): ^def. manneskja
• (husband): ^def. eiginmaður
• (chessman): ^def. taflmaður, karl

maður

1. one, you

   Maður gerir þetta svona.

   You do it like this./One does it like this.

The pronoun maður declines as the noun, but cannot take the definite article. It is placed in a clause in the same way as the noun, but the difference is in the stress: as a pronoun, it never takes the main stress in a sentence.

• maður veit aldrei (“one never knows”)
• koma til dyranna eins og maður er klæddur

• eiginkona
• kona