manipule

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ma.ni.pyl/^[1]

Forms

manipule m (plural manipules)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin manipulus (“handful, sheaf; company of soldiers”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from manus (“hand”) and an obscure second element;^[2][3] Littré took it to be pleō (“to fill”).^[6] The French word is several borrowings of the Latin one at different times.^[3][4]

In Latin the word named the handful of stalks a reaper holds, then a military standard and the company under it, either because Romulus's standard was a bundle of hay on a pole or by soldiers' joking.^[3][2] In Late Latin it also named the cloth that priests used to wipe their faces, then the liturgical band worn on the arm (8th century).^[2][3] The Grand Robert notes the Medieval Latin name “mappula” “little napkin” for it.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The liturgical sense comes first, in a 1380 inventory of jewels given to the church of Reims.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Variant forms manipulum (1345) and maniple (1382–1449) are also found.^[2] In pharmacy manipule was a handful of herbs or seeds used in a remedy (1478), and Bonaventure des Périers lists it among an apothecary's measures.^[2][6] As a term of Roman history, a subdivision of the cohort, it appears in 1660, perhaps a new borrowing.^[2][3]

The verb manipuler (1765), formed from the pharmacy sense, is now far more alive than the noun.^[3][4] The maniple was worn at Mass until the liturgical reform of 1967.^[8]

Timeline

• 1345 – The form manipulum.^[2]
• 1380 – The liturgical sense, at Reims.^[2]
• 1478 – A handful of herbs, in pharmacy.^[2]
• 1660 – A Roman military unit, in Oudin.^[2]
• 1765 – The verb manipuler.^[3]
• 1967 – The maniple is dropped from the liturgy.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (liturgy) A maniple, a band of cloth formerly worn on the left forearm by the priest, deacon and subdeacon at Mass.^[9][8]
2. (Roman history) A maniple, a tactical unit of two centuries forming a third of a cohort; its standard.^[8][9]
3. (obsolete, pharmacy) A handful of herbs or seeds.^[2][10]

Word family

• manipulaire
• manipuler
• manipulateur
• manipulation

Related words

• main
• Latin manipulus
• English maniple
• English manipulate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 230b
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse