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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word manga

manga1 sleeve

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1104 a charter in Oelschläger's list
Inherited from
Latin manica
Ultimate origin
Latin manus
Etymology tree of manga1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mānus
French main
Italian mano
Spanish mano
Latin manica
French manche
Spanish manga
From the same root · manga1
English manumission ← mānus
Latin comminus ← mānus
Latin ēminus ← mānus
Latin manceps ← mānus
Latin mancus ← mānus
Latin mandō ← mānus
Latin mānēs ← mānus
Latin manicus ← mānus
Latin manifestus ← mānus
Latin manipulus ← mānus
Latin mānsuēsco ← mānus
Latin mantēle ← mānus
Latin mantica ← mānus
Latin manuālis ← mānus
Latin manuārius ← mānus
Latin manubiae ← mānus
Latin manubrium ← mānus
Latin manūmittō ← mānus
Latin manūscrīptum ← mānus
Latin manicātus ← manica

Pronunciation

  • /ˈmanɡa/, [ˈmãŋ.ɡa][1]

Forms

manga f (plural mangas)[1]

Etymology

The word for the sleeve is inherited from Latin manica (“long sleeve of a tunic”), a derivative of manus (“hand”).[2][3][4][1] Latin formed it as an adjective in -icus made into a feminine noun.[1] The same word is Portuguese manga, Galician manga, Catalan mànega, French manche, Italian manica and Romanian mânecă.[5][6] It passed into Basque manka.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates it from a charter of 1104, where it is already used of a piece of land, perhaps in the sense of a strip of ground between two lines of stakes.[2][3] The CDH's earliest record is in the Fuero de Madrid (1141–1235, in a 13th-century copy), in a list of garments: con mandil aut con manga.[7] The DPCAX has the sleeve in Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279): the star of Orion that is on the sleeve hanging from the left hand.[8]

Semantic evolution

Beside the sleeve, Alfonso X used it for an elephant's trunk.[8] The sense “detachment of soldiers, band of people” appears in Covarrubias (manga de arcabuceros) and in Lope; the Latin manus already had it, and it is very much alive in Argentina.[2][3][9] The medieval custom of giving sleeves to those who did a service explains the senses “gift” and “bribe”;[10] Covarrubias records hacer un negocio de manga, “to do a thing by bribery”.[2][10]

The shape of the sleeve gave the names of many tubes and bags: the fire hose, the strainer bag, the conical fishing net, the ventilation shaft of a ship or mine and the waterspout.[11] In the Americas a manga is a funnel of stakes leading cattle into a corral, a swarm of locusts and a group of people.[12][2]

Timeline

  • 1104 – a charter, the first record in Corominas.[2][3]
  • 1141–1235 – the Fuero de Madrid (in a 13th-century copy) has it among garments.[7]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the sleeve of a figure of Orion.[8]
  • 1280 – the General estoria uses it for an elephant's trunk.[8]
  • 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[13]
  • 1605 – first record of the sense “detachment, band of people”.[3]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records the military and fishing senses and several proverbs.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sleeve, the part of a garment into which the arm goes: una camisa de manga corta.[11][1]
  2. A hose: a long tube of leather, rubber, plastic or canvas for sucking up or directing a fluid.[11][1]
  3. The part of a carriage axle on which the wheel turns.[11]
  4. A cloth bag open at both ends and closed with cords.[11]
  5. The cloth cover over hoops that hangs from the processional cross of some parishes.[11]
  6. A conical net held open by a ring; a cast net.[11]
  7. A conical cloth strainer; a piping bag for cream and icing.[11]
  8. A waterspout.[11]
  9. A canvas tube that ventilates a ship's lower deck or a mine gallery.[11]
  10. A detachment of armed men.[11][3]
  11. (Latin America) A funnel of fences leading cattle into a corral; a swarm of insects; a group of people.[12]

Word family

  • manguera
  • manguito
  • mangote
  • arremangar
  • remangar
  • chupamangas
  • maniquete

manga2 Japanese comic

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
Borrowed from
Japanese 漫画
Ultimate origin
Japanese 漫画

Pronunciation

  • /ˈmanɡa/, [ˈmãŋ.ɡa][1]

Forms

manga m (plural mangas)[1]

Etymology

The word for the comic is borrowed from Japanese 漫画 (manga).[14][1] The Academy explains the Japanese word as 漫 (man, “whimsical, involuntary, improvised”) and 画 (ga, “picture”).[14]

Semantic evolution

Besides the comic itself, it names the genre, and it is used as an invariable adjective for things in the style of manga.[14][15] Unlike manga “sleeve”, it is masculine: el manga.[14][1] Wiktionary also records the spellings mangá and mangwa.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A manga, a comic (cómic) of Japanese origin: Leía un manga en el tren.[14][1]
  2. The genre of such comics.[14]

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to manga, invariable: dibujos manga.[14][15]

Usage notes

A third manga, the DLE's manga², is a variety of mango with a fruit without a notch, and its fruit; it comes from Portuguese manga.[16] In Portuguese this word comes from Malayalam, from Tamil.[17][18] Manga ancha means excessive indulgence, as in tener manga ancha.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 807
  3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. manga
  4. ^ a b Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. manga1
  5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5300
  6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. manga
  7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. manga
  8. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. manga
  9. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1110
  10. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1109
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. manga
  12. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. manga
  13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. manga
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. manga3
  15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. manga 3
  16. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. manga2
  17. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2124
  18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. manga

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Manga.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/manga. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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