Maður

Maður is the Icelandic noun meaning "man" or "person." It denotes an adult human being and is commonly used to refer to a male person as well as to people in a general sense in everyday language. The word appears in both spoken and written Icelandic and forms part of many phrases and expressions. In definite usage, the form typically appears with a definite article, as in meaning “the man.”

Etymology traces Maður to Old Norse maðr, a cognate of similar Germanic terms such as English man and German Mann. The Icelandic form retains the long vowel and the traditional masculine noun pattern seen in related languages.

Grammar and inflection: Maður is a masculine noun that declines for case and number in Icelandic. Like other nouns, it has indefinite and definite forms and different endings depending on grammatical role in a sentence. The indefinite nominative singular is mað ur, while the definite singular appears as maðurinn in common usage. The word also inflects for plural and for other cases, following standard Icelandic noun patterns. It is a core element of the language's basic lexicon and commonly appears in everyday speech and literature.

Usage notes: Maður is a fundamental term used to refer to people in general, to identify individuals, and in idiomatic expressions. It coexists with other terms for “man” or “male person” (such as karlar in plural or persóna in certain contexts) and is frequently found in compounds and descriptive phrases. In historical texts, the older form maðr is encountered in Old Norse writings, illustrating the word’s long-standing role in Germanic languages.