mango

mango¹ handle

Pronunciation

• /ˈmanɡo/, [ˈmãŋ.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

mango m (plural mangos)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the handle is inherited from Old Spanish mango, inherited from Vulgar Latin *manĭcus, a derivative of manus (“hand”).^[2][3][4] Corominas explains the Vulgar Latin word as a Romance derivative of manica (“sleeve”), which in Latin already named a grappling hook and in Italian also came to mean the handle of a knife.^[4][3] Wiktionary instead forms it from the Latin noun with the suffix -icus, and notes that the Liber Glossarum has the accusative manicum.^[1]

The same word is Portuguese mango, Galician mango and Catalan mànec.^[5][1] Corominas finds the derivative in Italian manico and in all the Gallo- and Ibero-Romance languages.^[4] Old French had the form manche.^[1]

The Latin noun itself continues Proto-Italic *manus; its further origin is disputed, and Schrijver and de Vaan favour Proto-Indo-European *mon-u-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250, in a copy of the mid-13th century), which speaks of the star que es en el mango de la espada de uryon “that is in the hilt of Orion's sword”.^[6][7] The Castilian law book Libro de los fueros de Castiella (before 1284) has a chapter De ferida de mango de cuchiello “on a wound from a knife handle”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed the same since Old Spanish: the part of a tool or utensil by which it is held.^[7][2] Nebrija gave it the Latin equivalents manubrium and capulus, and Covarrubias in 1611 explained it as the handle of a knife, a hoe or a similar tool, so called because it is taken in the hand.^[8][9] He also recorded the proverb En casa del herrero, cuchillo mangorrero “in the smith's house, a poor knife”.^[9]

The Diccionario de Autoridades records the phrase tener la sartén por el mango “to hold the frying pan by the handle”, said of someone who has the chief control of an affair.^[10] Mango de cuchillo “knife handle” is also a name of the navaja, the razor clam.^[2][11] Vox adds the neck of a stringed instrument.^[12]

Timeline

• 1219 – the DEMel lists a form mangu in a Castilian document.^[13]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the hilt of Orion's sword.^[6][7]
• c. 1335 – Corominas's first record, in the Conde Lucanor.^[4][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario has mango de cuchillo.^[8][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from manus.^[9]
• 1761 – the first records from the Americas, in documents from Bogotá.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. manicum”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. handle: the long or narrow part of a tool or utensil by which it is held: Este cuchillo tiene el mango de hueso.^[2][1]
2. (music) The neck of a stringed instrument.^[12]
3. mango de cuchillo: the razor clam.^[2][11]

Word family

• enmangar
• desmangar
• mangorrero

mango² mango, the fruit and tree

Etymology tree of mango²

inherited borrowed derived

English mango

Spanish mango

Pronunciation

• /ˈmanɡo/, [ˈmãŋ.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

mango m (plural mangos)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the fruit and the tree is borrowed from English mango, which is from Portuguese manga, from Tamil மாங்காய் (māṅkāy).^{[2][16][17][1]} The Tamil word is a compound of மா (mā, “mango tree”) and காய் (kāy, “unripe fruit”).^[1][18] Wiktionary puts Malay mangga between the Portuguese and the Tamil word, and the Spanish Wikcionario names Malayalam as the source.^[1][19]

The mango is a fruit of southern India, where the Portuguese came to know it; they took the Dravidian name to Malaya and Indonesia, whence the Portuguese word reached the Philippines.^[16] Corominas, after Dalgado, dates the Portuguese word for the fruit to 1554 and mangueira for the tree to 1525.^[16] The Breve diccionario gives 1525 for the fruit's name.^[16][17] The English word is recorded for India in 1673.^[16][17]

The tree was brought to America only at the end of the 18th century, and Corominas thinks the name was taken there from English.^[16] Puerto Rican mangó probably came through the French of Haiti or the Antilles.^[16] Spanish first had the Portuguese form manga, in 1578, of India.^[16][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in Spanish is manga, in Cristóbal de Acosta (1578), of Hindustan.^[16][17] Mango itself first appears in 1788 in Isert, of the Atlantic coast of Colombia;^[16][20] Friederici cites the same writer for the mango planted in the West Indies.^[16][20] The first record for Cuba is of 1790.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the tree and its fruit.^[2] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has only the handle; the 1884 edition adds the tree of the terebinth family, native to India and widespread in America, and its fruit.^[21][15] In Venezuela Alvarado notes that the tree was naturalised after independence, and records despegarse como mango maduro “to come off like a ripe mango”, meaning to leave in a hurry or to die.^[22] In Mexico, Central America and elsewhere mango is a popular word for an attractive person, and in Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia for a handsome man.^[2][23]

Timeline

• 1578 – Cristóbal de Acosta writes manga, of India.^[16][17]
• 1788 – mango is recorded for the Atlantic coast of Colombia.^[16][17]
• 1790 – the first record for Cuba.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the tree and its fruit.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mango tree, Mangifera indica, of the cashew family, native to India and grown throughout the tropics.^[2][1]
2. Its fruit: Pelamos un mango maduro para el postre.^[2][1]
3. (colloquial, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and elsewhere) An attractive person.^[2][23]
4. (Venezuela) A handsome man.^[2]

Word family

• mangal