manto

Forms

manto m (plural mantos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin mantum (“short cloak”).^[2][3][4][1] Only Spanish, Portuguese and Italian inherited this word, according to Corominas: Portuguese manto and Italian manto.^[2][5] The REW and García de Diego add Catalan mant; the DCVB takes Catalan manto from Spanish or Italian.^[6][7][8]

The origin of the Late Latin word is uncertain.^[2][3] Probus has a feminine mantus, and Isidore of Seville says that the people of Hispania call a short cloak by this name.^[2][9] Corominas reads this only as a sign that the word was felt to be foreign to classical Latin, not as proof of a pre-Roman Iberian origin.^[2] The REW, following Probus, still calls it Iberian and compares Basque mantar (“shirt”).^[6] Corominas prefers to see it as a back-formation from the older mantellum (“cloak, covering”), a word found once in Plautus.^[2][10] He finds it possible, with García de Diego, that the older word was a form of mantēle (“towel, napkin”), the source of mantel.^[2] Bénaben and Gómez de Silva also derive the Spanish word from the diminutive through a back-formation.^[11][12] Wiktionary traces it ultimately to Gaulish.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to a charter of 923 in Oelschläger's list.^[2][3] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word in its first scene, where the hero sees his house left sin pielles e sin mantos “without furs and without cloaks”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish manto was the outer cloak worn by both sexes: the Razón de amor describes a lady's manto of samite, and in Berceo's Vida de San Millán the saint gives his manto to the poor.^[13] Alfonso X's prose uses it for a cloak in general, for the mantle religious wear over the habit and for the long robe of ceremony of a king.^[14] Covarrubias (1611) calls it the old cloak of the nobles, kept by the military orders, and also the covering a woman put over her head to go out of doors.^[15] Autoridades describes this woman's manto as a silk veil reaching to the waist, named after its fabric (manto de humo, de gloria).^[16]

Transferred senses followed: in 1817 the Academy added the front of a chimney hood, a horizontal vein in a mine, and anything that covers or hides.^[17] Domínguez (1846–1847) records the mantle of bivalve molluscs.^[18] The fat that wraps the entrails and the membrane in which a child is born were added later; today the word also names a layer spread over a surface, such as un manto de nieve.^[4][19][1]

In Mexico manto or manto de la Virgen names several plants.^[20][21] In Leonese it is also a pig's lard and a fresh fall of snow covering the fields.^[22] Derivatives include manta (969) and mantón (end of the 14th century).^[3]

Timeline

• 923 – first record, in a charter.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has mantos “cloaks”.^[13]
• c. 1205 – the Razón de amor describes a woman's manto.^[13]
• c. 1218–1300 – a testament bequeaths a manto; the first example in the CDH from a contemporary witness.^[13]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses the word for a royal robe.^[14]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico: 1 manto negro de contray.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the cloak of the military orders and the woman's manto.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the senses “front of a chimney hood”, “horizontal vein in a mine” and “that which hides something”.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin mantum.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large mantilla without trimming, worn by women.^[4]
2. A cloak worn by some religious over the tunic.^[4]
3. The robe, usually embroidered, that covers images of the Virgin from head to base: el manto bordado de la Virgen del Rosario.^[4][25]
4. A rich ceremonial mantle tied at the shoulders and reaching to the ground, worn by sovereigns and by knights of the military orders.^[4]
5. A long gown worn in some colleges under the beca.^[4]
6. (historical) A loose garment with which women covered themselves from head to foot, or from head to waist.^[4]
7. The front of a chimney hood.^[4]
8. The layer of fat of the caul that wraps the entrails of animals; the membrane in which a child is born.^[4]
9. A layer of material spread over a surface: un manto de hojas secas.^[4][1]
10. That which covers or hides something.^[4]
11. (geology) The mantle of the Earth.^[1]
12. (zoology) The mantle of molluscs.^[1][25]

Word family

• mantón
• manta

Related words

• mantel
• Latin mantellum
• Portuguese manto

Usage notes

The DLE records the old compounds manto caballeroso, the outer garment knotted over the right shoulder that knights once wore, and manto capitular, worn by the knights of the military orders in chapter.^[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 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. manto
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2133
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5328
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4129
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. manto
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. mantum
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. manto
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 442
13. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. manto
14. ^ a b 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. manto
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1113
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 489
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 553
18. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1142
19. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1084
20. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 694
21. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. manto
22. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. manto
23. ^ 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. manto
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 633
25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. manto