Related words 男 is the native Japanese word for a man and sounds natural as a standalone noun, while マン is mainly a loanword suffix attached to job or role names.
男性 is a neutral, formal way to refer to a male person in ordinary speech or writing, whereas マン appears almost only inside compounds like サラリーマン .
人 is a gender-neutral word for a person, while マン in role compounds often carries a male or foreign-flavored nuance even when it just means '-person'.
Word family· 82 office worker; company employee; salaryman
photographer · cameraman; camera operator; cinematographer
Spiderman plank; Spiderman abs
battement (ballet movement)
superman; superhuman person · Superman (superhero)
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salesman
manhole
sportsman
security guard
gentleman
stuntman; stunt performer; stunt double
foreman
snowman
trading company employee
chairman
showman
young man
bogeyman; boogeyman
lizardman
frogman
sandwich man
freshman; first-year student · newly hired career-track employee; new company recruit
inbetweener
key animator; lead animator
salesman; salesperson; businessman
self-righteous person; self-appointed rule enforcer
obligation sex
atman; true self
yes-man
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Etymology No explicit language-of-origin information is specified. The katakana spelling indicates a foreign-style element corresponding to 'man'; the exact borrowing history is not specified.
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