Man o'live

Posted by Smokey; Stover on September 29, 2009 at 04:10

In Reply to: Man o'live posted by Geoff on September 28, 2009 at 22:31:

: Where does the term, "Man o'live", "Man-o-live", or "Man of Live" come from?

The expression know to most people is "man alive!" It's an interjection which is usually used when one experiences something amazing, awesome or exciting, something which inpsires interjections. It can be used in both positive situration and negative ones.
"Man alive, I'm being eaten up by mosquitoes!")

It's a member of the family of interjections often expressed simply as "Man!" It's usually followed by an explanation, as in, "Man, but she was good!" You sometimes hear "man, oh man!" expressed as a sort of moan or plaint, as when you are communicating the pain you have from a toothache. It can probably be heard also merely as an intensifier of simply "Man!"

Myl guess is that "Man alive" is just a prolongation of the interjection to intensify it by length. "Alive" is used in other interjections, like "Sakes alive!" which is equivalent in strength, I think, to "For goodness' sake." Perhaps the word "alive" can be thought of as indicating a certain amount of life or active feeling in the sentiment. I have capitalized the first letter of these interjections only because they usually appear as the first word of an utterance.

I can't tell you anything about the history of this expression, but I can tell you what the Urban Dictionarysays about it.

man alive . . .
Interjection, usually followed by an "unbelievable" event
Drunk brother: Man alive, did I have to ****!
Me: Congratulations. Now die.
get this def on a mug Mug
Used as in the context of shock. Or awe. Usually when said it's exhaggerated. Also used to replace 'oh my god'.
1. Man alive!! (whilst perving at fit dancer in BCM)
2. Man alive that is [a] beaut! (Whilst shopping and seeing a nice top)
3. Maaaaaan aliiiiive (As opposed to swearing whilst on a rollercoaster)"

As the Urban Dictionary, "Man alive" can be used as a substitute for an expression you're thinking, but had better not say, the same way "Holy Hannah" is the kind of oath permitted to Batman's sidekick Robin.

[Dead link removed - ed]