manger

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English maunger, also manyour and mangeour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mangure, Old French maingeure or mangeoire (late 12th century),^[5][4][6] formed from mangier (“to eat”) and the suffix -oire, used for implements and containers.^[3][6][5] The verb is from Late Latin mandūcō (“to chew, eat”),^[6][7][4] from mandūcus (“glutton”),^[6][4] from mandō (“to chew”).^[6][7][4] Hoad and Ayto derive the noun from a Romance or Vulgar Latin *mandūcātōria,^[8][9] but Barnhart thinks no Latin form need be posited, since the Latin words for a manger were different (praesēpe and others), and Italian mangiatoia is built on a verb Italian took from French.^[3] The OED compares Occitan manjadoira, Catalan menjadora and Portuguese manjedoura,^[5] and notes that the Anglo-Norman word gave the Medieval Latin of British sources, mangerium and manjeria.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long open box or trough in a stable or barn from which horses and cattle eat: c. 1350, in a copy of the poems of William of Shoreham, written before 1333.^[5][3] Barnhart dates the form manyour before 1333, and manger before 1338 in Mannyng's Chronicle.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline explains that the manger held feed other than hay, which was usually put in a rack above it,^[6][5] and Middle English already had the phrase to have at rack and manger, to keep someone supplied with the necessities of life, said for example of a mistress.^[6][2] In Middle English the word could also mean the stall itself.^[2] Through Luke's account of Christ's birth (laid in a manger because there was no room at the inn), the word became a Christian symbol of the Nativity;^[10][11] the Vulgate's word there is praesepium.^[5] From 1556 the English word also named the star cluster Praesepe in Cancer.^[5] Figurative uses are recorded from about 1600.^[5] On ships, from about 1620, the manger was a space in the bows fenced by a low board to keep water coming in at the hawseholes from running over the deck.^[5][12] The fable of the dog in the manger, which keeps the horses from the hay it cannot eat itself, is quoted from 1564.^[13][11] In Hertfordshire manger-meat was fodder for cattle.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – a feeding trough for horses and cattle.^[5]
• 1382 – mangours, in the Norwich records.^[2]
• 1556 – the star cluster Praesepe.^[5]
• 1564 – the dog in the manger.^[13]
• c. 1600 – figurative uses.^[5]
• c. 1620 – on a ship, a space in the bows that keeps out water from the hawseholes.^[5]
• 1905 – verb, to tie an animal to a manger.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long open box or trough in a stable or barn, from which horses or cattle eat: She laid fresh oats in the manger.^[12][4][5]
2. (nautical) A small enclosed space in the bows of a ship that catches water entering through the hawseholes; also, a raised perforated floor in the chain locker.^[12][4][5]

Word family

• dog in the manger

Related words

• mandible
• mange
• manducate
• blancmange

Usage notes

The OED also records an obsolete manger meaning a sumptuous meal or banquet (c. 1390–1605) and a prepared dish, chiefly in manger blanc, blancmange (1574–1680); it has a separate source, the Anglo-Norman noun manger, food, from the verb meaning to eat.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)