måndlige

Måndlige is not a standard word in contemporary Scandinavian dictionaries. When it appears, it is usually interpreted as a nonstandard or historical spelling variant of the Danish adjective mandlig, meaning “male” or “masculine.” The standard plural attributive form before a plural noun is mandlige, as in de mandlige læger, meaning “the male doctors.”

Across related languages, there are cognate forms with the same meaning. Danish uses mandlig (singular) and mandlige (plural). Swedish uses manlig (singular) and manliga (plural). Norwegian Bokmål uses mannlig (singular) and mannlige (plural). In each language, the form accompanies nouns to describe male individuals and agreements depend on number and definiteness of the noun.

Usage notes and examples:

- Danish: de mandlige læger (the male doctors)

- Swedish: de manliga läkare (the male doctors)

- Norwegian: mannlige leger (the male doctors)

Orthography and status:

The appearance of the diacritic form måndlige or måndlige-like spellings would be considered nonstandard today. In Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, the preferred spellings are mandlig/mandlige, manlig/manliga, and mannlig/mannlige, respectively. Therefore, if encountered, måndlige is typically treated as a misspelling, a transcription artifact, or a historical variant rather than a current standard term.

Etymology:

The adjective is derived from the root for “man” plus the suffix -lig, which indicates similarity or relation, a pattern common across Germanic languages.