man, noun1 and & interjection
/mæn/
- Forms:
- Also mann.
- Origin:
- Dutch, AfrikaansShow more Translation of Dutch (later Afrikaans) man man, husband.
A. noun A husband.
1798 Lady A. Barnard in Lord Lindsay Lives of Lindsays (1849) III. 465In this house I saw the first trait of female industry, the vrows being employed in making clothes for their ‘men’.
1975 E. Prov. Herald 6 June 12Her man is..balancing 10 metres up on a rickety platform surrounded by lethal galvanised sails.
B. interjection Frequently in the phrase ag man /ax -/ [Afrikaans], an interjection used (regardless of the gender of the one being addressed) for emphasis, to express irritation or frustration, or pleadingly. Hence noun, an utterance of this phrase. See also ag.
1897 E. Glanville in E.R. Seary S. Afr. Short Stories (1947) 20‘Man,’ said Lanky John, the ostrich farmer, ‘I killed a snake, a ringhals, yesterday morning back of the kraal, and in the evening when I went by there was a live ringhals coiled round the dead one.’
1994 C. Harper in Flying Springbok June 108‘Ag Man’ is a South Africanism meaning ‘oh dear’ or, alternatively ‘get lost, you idiot’.
A husband.
Frequently in the phrase ag man /ax -/ [Afrikaans],an interjection used (regardless of the gender of the one being addressed) for emphasis, to express irritation or frustration, or pleadingly. Hence noun, an utterance of this phrase.
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