mensk

Borrowed from Old Norse mennskr (“human”), from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz (“human”). Cognate with Old English mennisc (“human”); more at mennish.

• menseke, menske

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛnsk(ə)/

mensk

1. (rare) honorable, praiseworthy; beautiful
   • c. 1335-1361, William of Palerne (MS. King's College 13), folio 62, recto, lines 3900-3901; republished as W. W. Skeat, editor, The Romance of William of Palerne‎^[1], London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1867, →OCLC, page 126:

     ⁊ more menſk it is · manliche to deie / þan for to fle couwarli for ouȝt þat mai falle

     More honorable it is / manly to die / than to flee cowardly for aught that may fall [that is, for anything that may happen].

• English: mense (dialectal)
• Scots: mense

• “mensk(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

mensk

1. Alternative form of menske

mensk

1. Alternative form of mensken
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section III:

     Ȝit I may as I myȝte · menske þe with ȝiftes / And mayntene þi manhode · more þan þow knoweste.

     Yet I may, as I might, honour thee with gifts and maintain thy manhood more than thou knowest.

   • c. 1425, Northern Homily Cycle:

     It sall ger hir be ful fain / To mensk oure goddes with al hir main.

     Her harvest shall be very pleasing / To honour our goddess with all her power.

• mansche (Mooring)
• Mensk (Sylt)

From Old Frisian menniska, from Proto-West Germanic *mannisk, from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz.

mensk m (plural mensken)

1. (Föhr-Amrum) human being, person