- mensch (n.)
- "person of strength and honor," 1907, from Yiddish, from German Mensch, literally "man, person," from Old High German mennisco "human," from Proto-Germanic adjective *manniska- "human" (see mannish).
- minx (n.)
- 1540s, mynx "pet dog," later "a young, pert, wanton girl" [Johnson] (1590s), of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortening of minikin "girl, woman," from Middle Dutch minnekijn "darling, beloved," from minne "love" (see minnesinger) + -kijn, diminutive suffix. Klein's sources suggest the word is from Low German minsk "a man," also "an impudent woman," related to German Mensch (see mensch), which also has a sense in vulgar use of "wench, hussy, slut."
- mannish (adj.)
- Old English mennisc "human, human-like, natural," from Proto-Germanic *manniska- (source also of Old Saxon mannisc, Old High German mennisc, Gothic mannisks), from *manna- (see man (n.)). In some cases a new formation from man (n.) + -ish.
Sense of "masculine" is from late 14c.; in reference to women seen as masculine, from late 14c. Of adult males (opposed to childish) from 1520s. Related: Mannishly; mannishness. The Proto-Germanic adjective became, in some languages, a noun meaning "human" (such as German Mensch), and in Old English mannish also was used as a noun "mankind, folk, race, people."
