English

Noun

man among men

1. (idiomatic) A man who is accepted on the same terms, and as having the same worth, as other men in society.
   • 1892, Mark Twain, The American Claimant, ch. 12:

     I am a man among men, on an equal footing with Tom, Dick and Harry.

   • 1913, Joseph A. Altsheler, The Texan Scouts, ch. 5:

     The boy was on terms of perfect equality with Obed and the Panther. They treated him as a man among men.

   • 2001 June 24, Gerald Clarke, "The Double Life of an Aids Victim," Time (retrieved 14 July 2014):

     Willson transformed Roy Fitzgerald into Rock Hudson and secured him an apprenticeship. . . . [H]e was able to establish his film personality: steady, likable, a man among men.

2. (idiomatic) A superior or remarkable man who stands out from other men; a leader or exemplar for other men.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III:

     And be thy self Man among men on Earth.

   • 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Firm of Girdlestone, ch. 43:

     To her distorted fancy he was a man among men, a hero, all that was admirable and magnificent.

   • 1900, John Fox Jr., Crittenden: A Kentucky Story of Love and War, ch. 7:

     At the head of it rode two men—one with a quiet mesmeric power that bred perfect trust at sight, the other with a kindling power of enthusiasm, and a passionate energy, mental, physical, emotional, that was tireless; each a man among men, and both together an ideal leader for the thousand Americans at their heels.

   • 1916, Gilbert Parker, The World For Sale, ch. 26:

     [H]e was so much a man among men, a giant, with a great, lumbering mind, slow to conceive, but moving in a large, impressive way when once conception came.

   • 1997, Harriet Rubin, The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women, ISBN 9780747535164:

     A prince is a man among men, a canny fighter, a steely sovereign who takes what he wants out of life.

Usage notes

• Almost always preceded by the article a.
• This term is a contranym, designating, in one sense, a unexceptional man, and, in another sense, an exceptional man.

See also

• man of the people
• man's man