manifold

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English manifold, also manifald,^[2][3] earlier monifold,^[4] inherited from Old English manigfeald, in the Anglian dialect monigfald,^[5][4] a compound of manig (“many”) and -feald (“-fold”).^[5][6][4][7] The compound goes back to Proto-Germanic *managafalþaz,^[5] and is shared by Old Frisian manichfald, Old Saxon managfald, Old High German managfalt (now mannigfalt), Old Norse margfaldr, Swedish mångfalt and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐍆𐌰𐌻𐌸𐍃 (managfalþs).^[8][5][4][7] Etymonline and Barnhart suggest that it may have been formed in imitation of Latin multiplex.^[5][4] Old English also had a verb manigfealdian (“to multiply, increase”) and an adverb manigfealdlice (“in various ways”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varied or diverse in form or character, and numerous, of many kinds: both senses are in Old English, the first in the translation of Orosius and the second in the Blickling Homilies.^[8] Barnhart finds the West Saxon form about 750, in Cynewulf's “Christ II”, and the Anglian form before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[4] Bosworth–Toller glosses the Old English word as manifold, of many kinds, complex, and also numerous or abundant.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept its first sense, "of many kinds, varied", since Old English, though the Shorter Oxford now calls it chiefly literary.^[8][10] In late Old and early Middle English it was also a mathematical term for a multiple, used until 1660.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "of different kinds; many in number; multiplied; complicated".^[11] The noun grew from the adjective, first in the phrase by manifold, many times over (from about 1275), and then as multiplicity or variety (from about 1440).^[8][4] In philosophy, the manifold translated Kant's Mannigfaltiges, the unorganized mass of particulars given to the mind by the senses, first in Coleridge about 1822.^[8][2] From 1878 mathematicians used it for a kind of topological space.^[8] The mechanical sense, a pipe or chamber with several outlets, is a shortening of manifold pipe, which Etymonline finds by 1845 and which first named an instrument mentioned in the Old Testament;^[5] the shortened noun appears by 1855,^[5] or before 1884 in Barnhart,^[4] and the pipe that carries fuel to the cylinders of a car engine by 1904.^[5] The Old English verb died out in Middle English and was formed again from the adjective in the 18th century;^[8][10] from the 19th century it meant to make many copies, as with a manifold writer, a copying device.^[8][2] The word keeps the old pronunciation of many with /a/; the OED suggests that speakers had stopped linking the two words by the 17th century, when many took /ɛ/.^[5][8]

Timeline

• c. 750 – the West Saxon form manigfeald, in Cynewulf's “Christ II”.^[4]
• before 830 – the Anglian form monigfald, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[4]
• c. 1175 – in mathematics, a multiple (obsolete by 1660).^[8]
• c. 1275 – noun, in by manifold, many times over, in “The Owl and the Nightingale”.^[8] Barnhart dates the noun about 1250.^[4]
• c. 1440 – noun, multiplicity, variety.^[8]
• 1526 – adverb, by many times.^[8]
• 1767 – verb, re-formed, to make manifold, multiply.^[4]
• c. 1822 – in Kantian philosophy, the unorganized particulars given by the senses.^[8]
• 1851 – of a machine or apparatus, made of many parts.^[8]
• 1852 – a copy made with a manifold writer.^[8]
• 1855 – a pipe or chamber with several outlets.^[5]
• 1878 – in mathematics, a topological space.^[8]
• 1879 – verb, to make many copies of.^[8] Barnhart dates this sense to 1865.^[4]
• 1904 – the pipe carrying fuel to the cylinders of an engine.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Many and of different kinds; numerous and various: The new post brought manifold responsibilities.^[12][2][8]
2. Having many different forms, parts or features.^[12][2][8]

Adverb

1. Many times over; by a large multiple.^[2][8]

Noun

1. A pipe or chamber with several openings, used to collect or distribute a fluid, as the inlet and exhaust manifolds of an internal-combustion engine.^[12][5]
2. Something made up of many different parts or elements; a whole that unites them.^[2][12][8]
3. In the philosophy of Kant, the unorganized mass of particulars given to the mind by the senses.^[2][8]
4. In mathematics, a topological space each point of which has a neighbourhood like that of a Euclidean space of a given dimension.^[8]
5. A copy of a document, especially one made on thin paper.^[12][8]

Verb

1. To make several copies of a document at once.^[2][8]
2. To make manifold; to multiply.^[2][8]

Word family

• manifoldly
• manifoldness
• manifolder
• intake manifold

Related words

• many
• -fold
• manyfold
• multiplex
• multiply

Usage notes

In northern English, Scottish and Irish dialect, manifold or manifolds is also the third stomach of a ruminant, the omasum, recorded from about 1400; the OED treats it as a separate compound of many and fold, probably modelled on the adjective.^[8][13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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 d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ 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)