Etymology

Always derived from ON, cp. OIcel mennskr ‘human’ next to OE mennisc ‘human’, and Go mannisks, OFris manniska (n., ‘man’), OS mannisc, mennisc, OHG mennisc < PGmc *manniska-. The absence of palatalization suggests loan from ON (thus Bj. and Dance 2003: 78), but the possibility of native [sk] in oblique forms of the suffix -isc means it cannot be taken as a certain phonological test; and the sense development from ‘of a human’ > ‘befitting an (ideal) human, i.e. generous, courteous’ is also not as characteristic of ON (esp. the n. mennska; see menske) as might be supposed, already being attested in related OE words (cp. OE mennisclic, mennisclicnes).

PGmc Ancestor

*manniska-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

mennskr ‘human’
(ONP mennskr (adj.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far menskur, Icel mennskur, OSw mænsker

OE Cognate

mennisc ‘human'

Phonological and morphological markers

[absence of palatalization of */k/] (may not be applicable)

Summary category

C2c

Attestation

The rarest form in the mensk- word family, found only in a handful of N and alliterative texts. 

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 964; WA 1746

On the sense at Gaw 964 (‘clearly a sarcastic application of the epithet menskful often used to characterize an attractive young woman’), see PSn. Anderson reads a further instance as sb. at Cl 646, but most editors interpret mensk here as an instance of the n. menske. The reading <menseke> at WA 1746 in the A MS is always taken as an error. Skeat glosses it as an instance of menske (n.).

Bibliography

MED mensk(e (adj.) , OED3 mensk (adj.) , HTOED , Dance mensk, Bj. 139 [West 1936: 126],  de Vries mennska (mennskr), Mag. mennskur, Orel *manniskaz, Kroonen *manniska-