Mans
verbOperates or staffs a post, station, or piece of equipment (third-person singular of 'to man').
How to spell mans
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce mans
What does mans mean?
- verbOperates or staffs a post, station, or piece of equipment (third-person singular of 'to man').
Mans in a sentence
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She mans the reception desk every morning until nine.
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He mans the help line whenever a colleague is on leave.
Where does mans come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is the present-tense, third-person singular form of the verb 'to man', which grew directly out of the very old noun 'man'. That noun comes from Old English mann, meaning simply 'a human being' or 'a person', a sense far broader than the later 'adult male'. The verb sense, 'to supply with people' or 'to take up a station and operate something', developed because crews and garrisons were literally filled with men; to man a ship or a wall meant to put people on it. The bare verb is centuries old, and adding the regular -s gives the form used with 'he', 'she', or 'it'. The spelling trap here is purely the missing apostrophe: 'mans' is a verb, while the very similar 'man's' is the possessive of the noun, and fluent writers slip between the two without thinking.
How the word is built
- man (from Old English mann: human being, person)
- -s (third-person singular verb ending)
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