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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word manta

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
969 a charter in Oelschläger's list More words from the 10th century
Ultimate origin
Latin mantum
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mantum
Spanish manto
Spanish manta
English manta

Pronunciation

  • /ˈmanta/, [ˈmãn̪.t̪a][1]

Forms

manta f (plural mantas)[1]

Etymology

It is from Spanish manto (“cloak, mantle”), a derivative that Spanish shares with Portuguese manta, Catalan manta and Occitan manta.[2][3][4][1] García de Diego takes it from the neuter plural of Latin mantum “cloak”, the source of the masculine noun.[5] In Italian the word occurs only occasionally, taken from Spanish.[2]

The Latin noun is a late word for a short cloak;[2] Isidore says that the people of Hispania call it so, which Corominas reads as a sign that it was felt to be foreign to classical Latin.[2] Its origin is uncertain: Corominas thinks it was probably extracted from mantellum, the REW mentions the view of Probus that it was Iberian, and Wiktionary derives it probably from Gaulish *mantos.[2][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from a charter of 969, then from the Fuero de Avilés (1155) and Berceo.[2][3] In early texts it appears in lists of household goods: an inventory of the 13th century counts .ii. mantas among the chests, cauldrons and benches, and a will of 1244 leaves una manta to a confraternity.[7] Corominas thinks that the original sense was a kind of cloak, from which came the travelling wrap and finally the bed blanket.[2]

Semantic evolution

The bed blanket is already clear in Berceo, where a sick man is covered con la manta e con el sobrelecho.[7] In 1288 the word also named a headscarf.[2] Nebrija distinguishes the manta de cama (Latin lodix) from the manta de pared, a wall hanging.[8][2] Covarrubias (1611) adds a siege engine that sheltered soldiers scaling a wall and, in falconry, certain wing feathers of the hawk.[9] Autoridades (1726) also gives the blanket put on horses in winter.[10] The verb mantear “to toss in a blanket” is recorded from 1599, and somanta “a beating” from 1817.[3]

In the Americas the word was used from 1513, and the chronicles call the cotton cloaks of the Indians of Mexico mantas; the Academy recorded in 1884 the coarse cotton cloth made in Mexico.[11][12][13] DAMER lists a poncho-like garment in Bolivia and northwestern Argentina, the colourful cloak of the Chilean huaso, and a painted banner in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.[14] English borrowed manta for a Spanish wrap in 1748 and for the great ray in 1760, from its shape like a blanket.[15]

Timeline

  • 969 – first record, in a charter.[2][3]
  • 1155 – the Fuero de Avilés.[2][16]
  • 1244 – a will leaves una manta to a confraternity.[7]
  • 1288 – the sense “headscarf”.[2]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija distinguishes the bed blanket from the wall hanging.[2]
  • 1513 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[11]
  • 1554 – López de Gómara writes of mantas de algodón in Mexico.[12]
  • 1599 – mantear “to toss in a blanket”, in Guzmán de Alfarache.[2]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records the siege engine and the falconry sense.[9]
  • 1760 – English manta for the ray.[15]
  • 1817 – somanta “a beating”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A blanket: a rectangular piece of wool, cotton or other material used as a cover on a bed: Ponle otra manta al niño, que hace frío.[4][1]
  2. A wrap or rug, usually of wool, used to keep warm outside the bed.[4]
  3. A garment of certain regional costumes.[4]
  4. A horse blanket.[4][10]
  5. An old card game for five players, with eight cards each.[4]
  6. (Latin America, mining) A sack of pita fibre used to carry ore.[4]
  7. A manta ray (mantarraya).[4][1]
  8. (colloquial) A large quantity of something, especially of blows.[4]
  9. (falconry) Each of the twelve wing feathers of a bird of prey that follow the aguaderas.[4][9]
  10. (military, historical) A plated plank used as a shield against enemy fire.[4]
  11. (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua) Coarse cotton cloth.[4][14]
  12. (Chile) The short multicoloured cloak of the huaso;[14][1] (Bolivia, Argentina) a garment like a poncho.[14][1]

Word family

  • mantilla
  • mantudo
  • mantear
  • somanta
  • mantero
  • mantarraya

Usage notes

The phrase a manta “in abundance” is derived by García de Diego from a Celtic word for “much”, not from manto.[5] Manta de pared “tapestry” is now obsolete.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 828
  3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. manto
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. manta
  5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4129
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5328
  7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. manta
  8. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. manta
  9. ^ 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. 1112
  10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 486
  11. ^ a b 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. manta
  12. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. manta
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 675
  14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. manta
  15. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  16. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. manta
Cite this entry

“Manta.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/manta. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·