manchot

Forms

manchot (feminine manchote, masculine plural manchots, feminine plural manchotes)^[1] First recorded as menchot (1502).^[2][3] Earlier words with other suffixes were menchaux (1263), manchier (second half of the 13th century) and manchet (1380), the last still found in the dialects.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French manc (“crippled, maimed”) + -ot, an adjective recorded from about 1180, whose feminine was manche.^[2][3][4][5] The GLLF dates the adjective to about 1138, in a life of Saint Giles.^[6] The Old French adjective is from Latin mancus (“maimed, crippled”),^[2][7][8] which Rey analyses as built on an element meaning “hand” (as in Latin manus) with a suffix used for names of bodily defects.^[3] The word was felt as related to manche¹ “sleeve”, “someone who has only one sleeve”.^[3]

The Latin word also gave Italian manco and Spanish manco.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1502, as menchot, in the Mémoires of Olivier de La Marche, meaning “having lost an arm”;^[2][8] Littré quotes the same text: On doit craindre son ennemi foible, manchot ou tors (“one must fear one's enemy, weak, one-armed or crooked”).^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Used as a noun for a one-armed man from 1553, the word is rare in the feminine.^[2][3] From 1680 (Richelet) the adjective was used familiarly by understatement: il n'est pas manchot meant “he is skilful, clever”, and later also “he is good at fighting”.^[2][3] Littré adds the sense “he knows how to help himself”, and the playful n'être pas manchot de la langue “to have a ready tongue”.^[8]

In 1760 the ornithologist Mathurin Brisson gave the name manchot to the penguins because of their short wings, and the word has named these birds of the southern hemisphere since then.^[2][3] They are often confused in French with the pingouin, the auk of the Arctic.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1502 – Menchot appears in Olivier de La Marche's Mémoires.^[2]
• 1553 – First used as a noun.^[2][3]
• 1680 – Richelet records il n'est pas manchot “he is skilful”.^[2][6]
• 1760 – Brisson names the penguin manchot.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having lost one or both hands or arms; one-armed, armless.^[9][10][1]
2. (familiar) Clumsy; chiefly in n'être pas manchot, to be skilful, or not to shy away from work.^[9][10]

Noun

1. A person who has lost one or both hands or arms.^[9][10][1]
2. A penguin, a flightless seabird of the southern hemisphere: manchot empereur, manchot royal.^[9][1][2]

Related words

• manquer
• manche¹
• main
• Latin mancus

Usage notes

The penguin is manchot, while pingouin properly names the auk of the northern seas; the two are often confused.^[3][2] Bandit manchot is a slot machine.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 139a
6. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)