Re: USAGE: would've verses would of

Steg Belsky wrote:
>Old English certainly had a lot of ways to say "man"... besides whatever
>the old form of the word "man" itself was, there's this "guma" and then
>there's the "were" in "werewolf"... does anyone know if there were
>semantic differences between these different words?  were some of them
>gender-neutral while others male?
man was gender-neutral, it just meant "one, someone"
mann was masculine, it could mean "human being", "man" or "hero"
manna was a form of mann
wer was masculine and meant "man" or "husband". In poetry it also meant "hero"
guma was masculine and generally only found in poetry. It meant "man" or "hero"
ceorl was masculine and generally only meant "man" in poetry, otherwise it
meant "free man, commoner"

Add to these all the compound-words found only in poetry such as
haemedceorl, which added shades of meaning to the word, yes, Old English
had a lot of words meaning "man".

Dan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
semo la flamma, semo la casea
semo la tuta, semo la cambea

We are the spark, we are the flame
We are the people, we are the change