Etymologically
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manipule

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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
  • 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