What’s in a Word?

society

man

אדם · אנוש · איש · גבר · אנשים · גבירה

Bottom line

Adam is the species name and the highest term: man or mankind (in a mussar text, keep it adam when the passage turns on his likeness to Hashem). Enosh is man in his weakness: mortal, frail man (the plural anashim flips to "men of standing," Rashi). Ish is one individual, physically mature: a man, "man" as against woman or child. Gever is man as strength: man in the sense of the strong male, and not generic humanity, though whether it is always male is itself disputed (Ibn Ezra says yes, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel brings gender-neutral uses against him). The one thing not to get wrong: the Zohar ranks them (adam > enosh > ish > gever), so a derashah on which word a pasuk uses is a derashah on rank.

Distinctions

adam (אדם)

The all-encompassing word: singular and plural, male and female (Bereishis 1:26-27; Zohar Nasso 141b). Malbim: adam behaves like a proper name, which is why it never takes a plural or feminine form; "two adams" is as wrong as "two Reuvens." On the root, some explain that he was called Adam because adam comes from adamah, ground, and he was created from the earth. The column presses the obvious objection: all the animals too were created from the earth (Bereishis 1:24), and adam is never used of them, so why is he the one called Adam? The Maharal answers that the name ties him to the ground as a reminder that just as dirt is worthless yet holds great potential to foster growth, so a man is physically worthless, being only dust and ashes, yet holds great potential to grow. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim answers the question head on: the animals were not created from the earth, they merely emerged from it, while Adam was actually created from it. Pappenheim also ties adam, separately, to the biliteral ד-ם, "similar" (domeh, demus, dimyon), because man is made in Hashem's image and resembles Him in the way his actions echo through creation. Rav Hirsch: from hadom, footstool, for man was meant to sit at Hashem's footstool as His deputy. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg: the adamah link marks man's pull toward the material, so adam names the great distance he can travel toward the spiritual. The Zohar (Tazria 48a): adam is man at his highest potential.

enosh (אנוש)

Man in degradation (Yeshayahu 51:12), lost hope (Iyov 14:19), or the pursuit of bodily pleasure (Tehillim 104:15); the angels who argued against giving man the Torah called him enosh (Tehillim 8:5). Radak (Sefer HaShorashim): the root א-נ-ש means weak and sickly. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: from נ-ש, "moved from its natural condition" (nosheh, nashah, anush), so enosh is man whose powers are weak beside greater spiritual beings. Wertheimer: enosh is ish with a diminutive nun. The Vilna Gaon: the image of Hashem held fully only for Adam and Sheis; it was lost in the days of Sheis's son Enosh, when idolatry began to develop, and the loss of that spiritual resemblance was reflected in physical ways, leaving man weakened, to the point that according to the Midrash people's faces came to look like apes. Rashi (to Bamidbar 13:3): the plural anashim means men of importance, because the lowly man who joins others and humbles himself before them becomes important through the group.

ish (איש)

The exclusive term: man as against woman, or man as against child. Where adam names the species, ish names a single specimen of any species, which is why the Tanach uses it of an angel (Yechezkel 9:11), a keruv (Shemos 25:20), a star (Yeshayahu 40:26), an animal (Bereishis 7:2), even a curtain (Shemos 26:3). Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: from י-ש, "has, is, exists"; the mature man has all he needs and stands at the peak of his physical existence. Mecklenburg: ish implies a more abstract, less material existence, so the road to the spiritual is shorter and less remarkable; hence it can name angels, but it does not name man's greatest possibilities.

gever (גבר)

Ibn Ezra (to Shemos 10:11): always a male as against a female. Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel disputes this and cites gender-neutral uses. Malbim: from gevurah, so it recalls strength and potency and usually means the male; a woman in power takes a cognate, gevirah (Yirmiyahu 13:18) or geveres (Yeshayahu 47:5), queen, queen-mother, mistress, lady of the house.

Ibn Yachya reads the four as life stages: adam the child (nearest the ground), gever the adolescent (physical strength arrives), ish the adult (from aish, fire, at the height of his power), enosh the elder (strength diminished).

Rendering guidance

  • Standalone אדם in a mussar passage: "man" (generic, no article) or "a person." When the shmuess is about gadlus ha'adam or tzelem Elokim, keep adam transliterated; the word is carrying the argument.
  • אנוש: "mortal" or "frail man" when the tone is lowering; plain "man" only where the context is neutral. אנשים: "men," and where Rashi's reading is in play, "men of standing."
  • איש: "a man," "each man," "a person"; in the מה אנוש / מה אדם pesukim the contrast is the point, so vary the English.
  • גבר: "man" with the strength sense audible ("a strong man," "the man who"); never "mankind."
  • Trap: English "man" absorbs all four. In a list, a doubled pair, or a derashah on why a pasuk says enosh rather than adam, do not let "man" stand for two Hebrew words; gloss the Hebrew in parentheses or vary the English (mankind / mortal / a man / strong man).
  • Together, a rising or falling sequence follows the Zohar's order: adam highest, then enosh, ish, gever. Render so the rank is visible.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Bereishet - Be a Man," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 27 Tishrei 5780 (2019-10-26): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8444-bereishet-be-a-man.md. Primary loci the article cites: Zohar Tazria 48a and Nasso 141b; Bereishis 1:24, 1:26-27, 7:2; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. אנש; Rashi to Bamidbar 13:3; Ibn Ezra to Shemos 10:11; Yeshayahu 51:12, 40:26, 47:5; Iyov 14:19; Tehillim 8:5, 104:15; Yechezkel 9:11; Shemos 25:20, 26:3; Yirmiyahu 13:18.