manna

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English manna, also mana and manne,^[2] inherited from Old English manna,^[3][4][5] borrowed from Late Latin manna,^[4][6][7][8] from Ancient Greek μάννα (mánna), the word of the Septuagint and the New Testament,^[3][8] from Biblical Hebrew מן (mān),^[3][6][4][1] probably by way of Aramaic.^[3][7][8][9] The Hebrew word is of uncertain origin.^[3] Exodus 16:15 explains it from a question meaning "what is it?",^[3][10] which Weekley calls an early folk etymology;^[11] Skeat preferred a Hebrew word for a gift,^[12] and Etymonline also notes that link.^[6] In 1823 C. G. Ehrenberg identified the Israelites' manna with the sweet exudation of a tamarisk of Mount Sinai,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English compare an Arabic word for that substance;^[9][13] the Egyptologist G. M. Ebers proposed the same sense for Egyptian mannu in 1872.^[3][11] The Latin word has descendants in most European languages, and French manne influenced several senses of the English word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The food miraculously supplied each day to the Israelites in the wilderness after they left Egypt (Exodus 16): before 899, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[4][3] The Old English version of Exodus 16:31 has Nemdon ðone mete manna, they called the food manna.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The biblical food became a figure for spiritual nourishment given by God before 1200,^[3] although Etymonline dates that sense to the late 14th century.^[6] In Middle English the word was also used of a miraculous substance said to be found in the tombs of the Virgin Mary and St John.^[2] Before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, manna was also the sweet gum that some plants exude, especially the manna ash;^[3][8] Johnson (1755) defines it as properly a gum, a honey-like juice dried solid.^[14] The OED derives an obsolete sense, grains of frankincense (about 1425 to 1753), from classical Latin manna (“flakes of incense”) and finds it hard to say which Latin source lies behind which English sense.^[3] The general sense of something good that arrives unexpectedly is recorded from 1593,^[4][6] and is now common in the phrase manna from heaven.^[3][15] In Australia from 1808 the word was used for the sugary honeydew left by aphids and other insects.^[3]

Timeline

• before 899 – the food of the Israelites in the wilderness.^[4][3]
• before 1200 – spiritual nourishment, especially from God.^[3]
• before 1398 – a sweet gum exuded by plants, especially the manna ash.^[3]
• c. 1425 – grains of frankincense (obsolete by 1753).^[3]
• 1593 – something welcome that comes unexpectedly.^[4] The OED's first record is Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (1600).^[3]
• 1611 – a particular kind of plant manna, in Cotgrave.^[3]
• 1808 – sugary honeydew produced by insects.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. In the Bible, the food that God supplied to the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 16).^[16][15][3]
2. Spiritual nourishment that comes from God.^[16][15][3]
3. Something valuable or welcome that comes unexpectedly; a windfall: For the small museum, the grant was manna from heaven.^[16][15][3]
4. A sweet dried juice from the manna ash and other plants, used as a mild laxative.^[16][15][3]
5. A sugary honeydew left on plants by aphids and similar insects.^[3]

Word family

• mannitol
• mannose

Usage notes

The OED records an obsolete manna from before 1382 to 1699 for a cereal offering among the ancient Israelites, from a Septuagint Greek variant of a Hebrew word for an offering, shaped by the word for manna.^[3] Dictionary.com lists manna with manner and manor as words that are easily confused.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House