Some Common Compounds

Man, Mann derive, no doubt, at times from OE Mann ‘man’, a personal-name still in use, though not common, in the twelfth century. The usual source is OE mann ‘man’, but the exact meaning is not always clear. It probably often means ‘servant’ as in many of the compounds below. Sometimes it may correspond to a phrase like homo Bainardi ‘the man of Bainard’, one who owed him feudal service. At times we may have reference to a lower rank in the social scale, nativus ‘bondman’. In 1279 Ralph de Ginges granted to Simon de Duntona Peter Man son of Robert Man his nativus with all his family and all his chattels for 40s. sterling. These bondmen seem to have acquired a surname descriptive of their status.