mangle

mangle¹ to mutilate, spoil

Etymology

The verb meaning to mutilate is inherited from Middle English manglen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mangler (“to mutilate, maim”), also mahangler,^{[5][6][7][8][9]} recorded from the late 13th century.^[10] Hoad, Weekley and Merriam-Webster take it as a frequentative of Old French mahaignier (“to maim”),^[6][8][3] and the OED allows the same;^[5] that verb is the source of maim.^[3][9] The OED compares Medieval Latin mangulare in a French document of 1361.^[5] Etymonline, Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary make it a frequentative of mangoner (“to cut to pieces”), itself of uncertain origin,^[11][4][12] but the OED considers Cotgrave's gloss of the French verb probably mistaken, since it usually meant to batter with a mangonel.^[5] The OED adds that Middle Dutch mangelen (“to mingle, exchange, fight”) may have reinforced the word.^[5] Johnson derived it from Dutch mangelen (“to be wanting”) and Latin mancus.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To mutilate or hack: probably before 1400,^[4][11][14] and the MED's manglit in peces comes from The Destruction of Troy, perhaps of before 1400.^[2] The OED's first quotation is later, before 1500, in Merlin.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative use is nearly as old as the literal one: the MED has manglid lawis, perverted laws, in a Wycliffite text from before 1425,^[2] which agrees with Etymonline's date of the early 15th century for destroying a thing's symmetry or completeness.^[11] From 1528 it was used of cutting up material things roughly;^[5] from 1533, in Thomas More, of spoiling a text or making words almost unrecognizable;^[5][4][11] from 1534, of damaging a person in mind or spirit.^[5] Johnson (1755) defines it as to lacerate, to cut or tear to pieces, to butcher, and quotes Shakespeare for true judgment being mangled.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to mutilate, hack.^[4][11][2] The OED's first quotation is from before 1500.^[5]
• before 1425 – manglid, of laws, perverted.^[2]
• 1528 – to cut or break up a material thing roughly.^[5]
• 1533 – to mispronounce words, to corrupt a text.^[5][4]
• 1534 – to damage a person in mind or spirit.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut, tear or crush so as to mutilate: The saw mangled his sleeve and his arm.^[15][3][5]
2. To destroy the shape of a thing by a violent blow or crash.^[3][15]
3. To spoil or garble through carelessness or ignorance: The announcer mangled every foreign name.^[15][3][5]

Word family

• mangler
• mangled
• mangling
• manglingly

mangle² laundry press

Etymology

The laundry press is borrowed from Dutch mangel,^{[11][4][3][6][9]} which Hoad, Weekley and the Shorter Oxford explain as short for mangelstok, from mangelen (“to press with a mangle”) and stok (“staff, roller”).^[6][8][16] The revised OED has it partly from Dutch and partly from the Dutch word's source, early modern German Mangel, a variant of Mange (“mangonel; press for cloth”),^[5][3] and Merriam-Webster also passes through Middle High German mange.^[3] Other dictionaries name Middle Dutch mange instead.^[11][4][9] All lead back to Late Latin manganum (“mechanism, catapult”),^{[5][4][3][14]} from Ancient Greek μάγγανον (mánganon, “any means of bewitching; machine for defending a fortification”),^[4][9][17] the source of mangonel as well.^[12][14] The OED thinks that the sense passed from siege engine to cloth press perhaps because both machines relied on the weight of stones.^[5] Klein and Partridge go on to a root Proto-Indo-European *mang- meaning to embellish or deceive.^[9][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A machine for squeezing water from washing and pressing it: 1696, in a letter of the Countess of Rothes.^[5][3] Etymonline and Barnhart have the word only from 1774.^[11][4]

Semantic evolution

Early mangles depended on the weight of stones, the feature the OED connects with the medieval war machine, and Italian made the same shift: Italian mangano was a siege engine, and Florio (1598) glosses it as a press for buckram, fustian or dyed linen.^[5][8] In England the use of a mangle, for a small charge, was a common way for poorer cottagers to earn money, as the OED notes,^[11] and Has your mother sold her mangle?, recorded from 1836 in Dickens, was London street-boys' banter until 1879.^[5][11] The verb followed in 1775, formed from the noun, perhaps after Dutch mangelen or German mangeln.^[5][4] To put through the mangle, to subject to a hard ordeal, is from 1924, in John Buchan.^[5] In Australian slang a mangle was a bicycle: Green's has it from 1928, the OED from 1941.^[18][5] Yorkshire had the mangle-woman, who did mangling for others.^[19]

Timeline

• 1696 – a machine for pressing laundry.^[5][3] Etymonline and Barnhart date it 1774.^[11][4]
• 1775 – verb, to press with a mangle.^[5][4][3]
• 1836 – Has your mother sold her mangle?, in Dickens (catchphrase, until 1879).^[5]
• 1880 – verb, to beat lead flat on a roller (obsolete).^[5]
• 1924 – to put through the mangle, to subject to an ordeal.^[5]
• 1928 – Australian slang, a bicycle.^[18] The OED has it from 1941.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A machine with rollers for squeezing water from washing and pressing it.^[5][15][16]
2. A machine that irons laundry between heated rollers.^[3]
3. A machine that applies starch or sizing to textiles and smooths and dries them.^[3]
4. (Australian slang) A bicycle.^[5][18]

Verb

1. To press or smooth damp linen with a mangle; now often historical.^[3][5][16]