men(n.)
man 的复数形式(名词)。与德语 Männer 等一样,它显示了i-mutation的影响。自古英语晚期起,它被用作不定代词("一个,人们,他们")。Men's liberation 首次出现于1970年。Men's room "男厕所",1908年起见于美国英语。早期它有一个更一般的意义:
men's room, n. "One end of this [cook and dining] room is partitioned off for a men's room, where the crew sit evenings, smoking, reading, singing, grinding their axes, telling stories, etc., before climbing the ladder to their night's rest in the bunk room ... For many years women have been employed in [logging] camps as cooks, hence the name men's room, for the crew are not allowed in the cook room except at meal time." [quoted in "Some Lumber and Other Words," in Dialect Notes, vol. II, part VI, 1904]
男厕所, n. "这个[厨房和餐厅]的一端被隔开作为一个 men's room,船员们晚上在那里坐着,抽烟,阅读,唱歌,磨斧头,讲故事等等,然后爬梯子去他们晚上的休息室...多年来,女性一直在[伐木]营地担任厨师,因此船员们不被允许进入厨房,除非是用餐时间。" [引自"Dialect Notes, vol. II, part VI, 1904中的"Some Lumber and Other Words"]
Menswear(也称为 men's wear)"男装",1906年起见。以比喻意义上的 separate the men from the boys "从一群人中区分出男子气概、成熟、能干等",始于1943年; 最早的用法倾向于将其归功于二战期间的美国飞行员。
One of the most expressive G.I. terms to come out of the late strife was "that's where they separate the men from the boys" — so stated by American aviators leaning from their cockpits to observe a beach-landing under fire on some Pacific island far below. ["Arts Magazine," 1947]
最具表现力的 G.I.术语之一出自最近的冲突,"那就是他们把男人和男孩分开的地方" — 这是美国飞行员在他们的驾驶舱里倾斜身体观察远下的某个太平洋岛屿上的海滩登陆时所说的。["Arts Magazine," 1947]