man

man

has been used for centuries in the generalized meaning ‘a human being (regardless of sex)’, and is embedded deep in idiom and verbal imagery: Man cannot live by bread alone / Every man for himself / Be one's own man / as good as the next man / a man for all seasons / etc. It is no use protesting that the gender phenomenon represented here is linguistic and not sexual, when changing social attitudes (shared by men as well as women) see it as an unacceptable outward sign of male dominance. There are alternatives available, though none of them is quite without awkwardness: person or one for man in the countable sense (One cannot live by bread alone / as good as the next person), and humanity or humankind for man in the uncountable sense (Humankind cannot live by bread alone). As these examples show, however, it will be some years before such contrived substitutions will sound natural, and they probably never will. But in everyday language there is no reason not to respect gender sensitivities in language. See also sexist language.