A Dictionary of Cont..

The plural of the word for mother is mammal
(The children with their mammas in the park).
The plural of the anatomical word is mammae.
mammoth, strictly speaking, designates a large,
extinct species of elephant, the northern woolly
mammoth, which resembled the present Indian
elephant but had a hairy coat and long, curved
tusks. More broadly, it designates any of various
related extinct species of elephant.
By extension mammoth has come to be used
as an adjective for anything huge or gigantic
(Plans for the production of a mammoth amusement
park, dwarfing all others, etc.). Some grammarians,
especially English authors, have objected
strenuously to the use of mammoth as
an adjective, but Americans, whose way of life
makes much greater demands for superlatives,
have accepted it as standard (Mammoth sale
opens this morning, The mammoth parade began
at Third and Main and extended beyond
Twelfth Street). This adjectival use of mammoth
has been taken up even by the august National
Geographic Magazine which (in July, 1947)
turned it back into a noun (Electric-drive mammoths
are now being turned out by assemblyline
methods).
man. The plural is men. Nouns ending in -man
have plurals ending in -men whenever the first
part of the noun is itself a meaningful English
word, as in Englishman, juryman, chessman.
When the first part of a noun ending in -man is
not a true English word, the whole has a regular
plural in s, as in Germans, Romans, Ottomans:
the only exception is women.
Compounds that have man as a qualifying element,
and that actually refer to certain classes of
men, have the form men in the plural, as in menservants,
men friends, men dancers. This is contrary
to the usual practice in English, according
to which the first element in a compound is singular
even when the whole is plural, as in maidservants,
boy friend.s, girl dancers. When a compound
that has man as a qualifying element
means something other than a class of men, it
follows the general rule and keeps the singular
man in the plural, as in man-hours and manholes.
When the first element of a compound is not
a qualifier but the object of the second element,
only the singular form man may be used, as in
man-eaters and man haters.
When man is the second element in a compound
meaning a certain kind of man, a preceding
noun usually has a final s, as in sportsman,
statesman, craftsman.
The words man and men, when used generically,
may be ambiguous. Either word may be
used to mean the human race, as in man is born
unto trouble as the sparks fly upward and the
best laid schemes of mice and men. But they may
also be used to mean the males only, as in man
is destined to be a prey to woman and men were
deceivers ever. The singular man is used more
often to mean the race, and the plural men, to
mean the males. But this rule is not followed
consistently. When the context does not show
that only the male is meant, it will generally be
assumed that men includes women, regardless of
what the author may have had in mind, as when
Milton undertook to justify the ways of God to
men. See gentleman.
man after my own heart. It was David whom
God chose when He sought him a man after his
own heart to replace the errant Saul. But all remembrance
of this, with its sadness and solemnity,
has faded from the phrase which is now
merely a cliche for anyone who happens to agree
with us.
man in the street. Whether one describes the ordinary
man as the man in the street or the extraordinary
man as a man of parts or an imaginary
adversary, wholly unreal, as a man of straw or a
wealthy man as a man of substance or a military
leader who acquires such influence over the
people as to threaten the existence of the government
as a man on horseback, one is employing a
clicht. They are all hackneyed phrases, faded
and worn, devoid of any clear and vigorous
meaning.
man of letters; author; writer. Partridge says that
in England an author is a writer of fiction, a
writer is a writer of fiction, history, biography
and belles lettres, a man of letters is a writer of
any or all of these or of poetry or works of
scholarship. He feels that man of letters should
be avoided as pretentious. Author, he thinks, has
a dusty connotation, turning up chiefly in legal
and official and semi-official documents, club
titles, income-tax forms, and the like. Of the
three terms, he feels writer to be the least invidious
and hence the most generally useful.
In America man of letters is seldom used. It
would be understood but would seem stiff and
pompous. Author designates one who writes a
novel, poem, or essay (a more inclusive term
than in Britain), the composer of a literary work
as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor,
or copyist. Writer has a more general meaning
and, as in England, is the most used of the
terms. It describes one who expresses ideas in
writing, one engaged in literary work, one who
writes, one whose occupation is writing. In the
movies, radio, and television, writer means one
who prepares the script. It is a regular title and
one, by the way, which is not very high in the
vast hierarchy of production. An author would
be thought of as the man who wrote the story
upon which the movie or script is based, a writer
the man who adapted it for movie or television
use. Distinguished authors have often worked as
writers in Hollywood.
manage. See handle.
mandatary; mandatory. Mandatary is a noun. It
describes a person or nation holding a mandate
(The congressman regards himself as mandatary
of his constituents. On the award of the League
of Nations, the Union of South Africa became
mandatary over the former German colony).
Mandatory may be used as an adjective or as
a noun. It means pertaining to, of the nature of,
or containing a mandate. In America it is often
used to mean obligatory or compulsory (The invitation
was actually mandatory; the cadet was