"man Friday" meaning in English

See man Friday in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌmæn ˈfɹaɪdeɪ/ [Received-Pronunciation], /-di/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌmæn ˈfɹaɪˌdeɪ/ [General-American], /-di/ [General-American] Forms: man Fridays [plural], men Friday [plural]
Rhymes: -aɪdeɪ, -aɪdi Etymology: From man (“adult male servant”) + Friday, coined by the English writer Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 – 1731) in his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) as the name of the protagonist Crusoe’s companion and servant; he is rescued by Crusoe from cannibal captives on a Friday. Crusoe frequently refers to him as “my man Friday”. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|man|Friday|t1=adult male servant}} man (“adult male servant”) + Friday, {{coinage|en|Daniel Defoe|nat=the English|nobycat=1|nocap=1|occ=writer}} coined by the English writer Daniel Defoe, {{circa2|1660|short=1}} c. 1660, {{nb...|of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River Oroonoque; having been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how He was at Last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates.}} […], {{nb...|at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row}} […], {{nb...|nospace=1}} […], {{nb...}} […] Head templates: {{en-noun|s|men Friday}} man Friday (plural man Fridays or men Friday)
  1. A trusted man whose job is to assist and organize someone else's day-to-day business or personal tasks; a personal assistant, a right-hand man; also, a trusted male companion. Categories (topical): Male people, Occupations Derived forms: girl Friday Translations (trusted male companion): apumies (Finnish), по́магач (pómagač) [masculine] (Macedonian), по́мошник (pómošnik) [masculine] (Macedonian), ве́рен слу́га (véren slúga) [masculine] (Macedonian)
    Sense id: en-man_Friday-en-noun-MZOQ8WRG Disambiguation of Male people: 74 26 Disambiguation of Occupations: 58 42 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 80 20 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 82 18 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 88 12 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 82 18 Disambiguation of 'trusted male companion': 95 5
  2. (derogatory) An aborigine or native, especially one who inhabits an island. Tags: derogatory
    Sense id: en-man_Friday-en-noun-BWegDwQb

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for man Friday meaning in English (6.0kB)

{
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        "1": "of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River Oroonoque; having been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how He was at Last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates."
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  "etymology_text": "From man (“adult male servant”) + Friday, coined by the English writer Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 – 1731) in his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) as the name of the protagonist Crusoe’s companion and servant; he is rescued by Crusoe from cannibal captives on a Friday. Crusoe frequently refers to him as “my man Friday”.",
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "word": "girl Friday"
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          "ref": "1945, K[arl] R[aimund] Popper, “The Principle of Leadership”, in The Open Society and Its Enemies, 4th edition, volume I (The Spell of Plato), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, published 1962, section V, page 135",
          "text": "Nothing is less true, as far as intellectual initiative is concerned, than the idea that those who are good in obeying will also be good in commanding. Very similar difficulties arise in political parties: the ‘Man Friday’ of the party leader is seldom a capable successor.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "A trusted man whose job is to assist and organize someone else's day-to-day business or personal tasks; a personal assistant, a right-hand man; also, a trusted male companion."
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        ],
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          "assist",
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        ],
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          "organize",
          "organize"
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          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "trusted male companion",
          "word": "apumies"
        },
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          "_dis1": "95 5",
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        },
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          "_dis1": "95 5",
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          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "mk",
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          "roman": "véren slúga",
          "sense": "trusted male companion",
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        }
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          "ref": "1966 August 24, D[enis] A[rthur] Greenhill, British Indian Ocean Territory [handwritten note on a confidential diplomatic cable relating to the depopulation of the Chagos Archipelago]",
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          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "An aborigine or native, especially one who inhabits an island."
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(derogatory) An aborigine or native, especially one who inhabits an island."
      ],
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        "derogatory"
      ]
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌmæn ˈfɹaɪdeɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-di/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌmæn ˈfɹaɪˌdeɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-di/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪdeɪ"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪdi"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Robinson Crusoe"
  ],
  "word": "man Friday"
}
{
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    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English eponyms",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from fiction",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪdeɪ",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪdeɪ/3 syllables",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪdi",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪdi/3 syllables",
    "en:Male people",
    "en:Occupations"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "girl Friday"
    }
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        "1": "of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River Oroonoque; having been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how He was at Last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates."
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  "etymology_text": "From man (“adult male servant”) + Friday, coined by the English writer Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 – 1731) in his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) as the name of the protagonist Crusoe’s companion and servant; he is rescued by Crusoe from cannibal captives on a Friday. Crusoe frequently refers to him as “my man Friday”.",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "ref": "1945, K[arl] R[aimund] Popper, “The Principle of Leadership”, in The Open Society and Its Enemies, 4th edition, volume I (The Spell of Plato), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, published 1962, section V, page 135",
          "text": "Nothing is less true, as far as intellectual initiative is concerned, than the idea that those who are good in obeying will also be good in commanding. Very similar difficulties arise in political parties: the ‘Man Friday’ of the party leader is seldom a capable successor.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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        "A trusted man whose job is to assist and organize someone else's day-to-day business or personal tasks; a personal assistant, a right-hand man; also, a trusted male companion."
      ],
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          "text": "Unfortunately along with the Birds go some few Tarzans or Men Fridays whose origins are obscure, and who are being hopefully wished on to Mauritius etc.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An aborigine or native, especially one who inhabits an island."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
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      ],
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        "derogatory"
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    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/ˌmæn ˈfɹaɪdeɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-di/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌmæn ˈfɹaɪˌdeɪ/",
      "tags": [
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      "ipa": "/-di/",
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        "General-American"
      ]
    },
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      "rhymes": "-aɪdeɪ"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪdi"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "trusted male companion",
      "word": "apumies"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "pómagač",
      "sense": "trusted male companion",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "по́магач"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "pómošnik",
      "sense": "trusted male companion",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "по́мошник"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "véren slúga",
      "sense": "trusted male companion",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ве́рен слу́га"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Robinson Crusoe"
  ],
  "word": "man Friday"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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