Mensch – German noun declension

Noun: Mensch
Gender: Masculine, Neuter
Hyphenation:

Nominative

Genitive

Dative

Accusative

Sample Sentences

Nouns inflected like Mensch

Mensch,

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *mon-
3. Proto-Germanic *mann-
4. Proto-Indo-European *-iskos
5. Proto-Germanic *-iskaz
6. Proto-Germanic *manniskaz
7. Proto-West Germanic *mannisk
8. Old High German menniskder.
9. Old High German mennisko
10. Middle High German mensche
11. German Mensch
12. From Middle High German mensche, mensch, from Old High German mennisko, a substantivization of the adjective mennisk, from Proto-West Germanic *mannisk, from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz (“human”), from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“human, man”). Compare Yiddish מענטש (mentsh), Dutch mens, Danish menneske, Swedish människa, all with the primary sense of “person” or “human being”.
13. The dialectal usage meaning "girl" or "woman" derives via an archaic sense of "servant", subsequently narrowed specifically to serving girls. The supposed corruption of Mädchen (“girl”) to Mensch is a folk etymology, but did indirectly influence the gender of das Mensch ("the girl"), which is neuter in dialectal usage (as opposed to the masculine der Mensch ("the person") in Standard German). See: Dutch Nouns 'mens', Danish Nouns 'menneske', Swedish Nouns 'människa'.

Verbs referencing "Mensch"

English Nouns mensch, Danish Nouns menneske, English Nouns munchkin.

Translations