Reply #18: No, not originally.

[Xithras]

When Mann came into English, there were three words used to desribe people. Mann was the equivalent of Human, Wer was the equivalent of Male Human, and Wif was the equivalent of female human. Up until very recently, Man was the general reference word for all of humanity. We need to push that meaning back out, rather than rework the rest of the language to avoid it.

Wer is completly dead to the language, so it can't be brought back, but "male", "guy" or any number of other words could suffice. (Wif, the old english word for female, survives today in the word Wife).