From Latinmanus (a feminine word despite its declension/ending), and probably reformed analogically as a singular from an early Romanian *mâni, plural of the hypothetical original form, *mân. The Latin derives from Proto-Italic*manus, itself from Proto-Indo-European*meh₂-(“hand”). Compare Catalan mà, French main, Galician man, Italian mano, Occitan man, Portuguese mão, Sardinian manu, Spanish mano. Most of the Romance cognates kept the feminine gender and the otherwise masculine-like ending, while in Proto-Romanian it switched to a feminine-like form/declension with an '-ă' ending (compare Aromanian mãnã, Megleno-Romanian mǫnă, Istro-Romanian măre).