μάγγανον

Forms

μάγγᾰνον (mánganon) n (genitive μαγγᾰ́νου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek.^[2][3] Following a suggestion of van Beek, he compares μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “contrivance, machine”), which is close in meaning and form; the Hesychius glosses μάγγανα (mángana, “contrivances”) and μαγγανία (manganía, “machine”) support the link, and the pair shows the variations of Pre-Greek words: α beside η, γ beside χ, and a nasal before the stop, with a suffix -αν-.^[3][1] Philoglossa rates the Pre-Greek origin as of low reliability.^[4]

Older scholars connected it with words of general meaning in other Indo-European languages: Sanskrit मञ्जु (mañju-, “beautiful, charming”), मङ्गल (maṅgala-, “happiness, good omen”), Middle Irish meng (“deceit, cunning”) and Old Prussian manga (“prostitute”), and Meringer derived it from a root meaning “to knead, rub”, whence “to dress up, deceive”.^[5][6][7] Beekes and Chantraine find these comparisons unconvincing, the Sanskrit words being too far off in meaning.^[2][5] Wiktionary also mentions a possible borrowing from Semitic words for “sickle”, such as Biblical Hebrew מַגָּל (maggāl).^[1]

Frisk and Chantraine discuss which sense came first, and Frisk starts from the technical sense, “block of a pulley, machine”, from which “charm, trickery” would have grown, much as with the word for “machine”.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is first found in the 1st century AD: in Heraclitus' Homeric Allegories it means a philtre or means of bewitching, and in Hero's Belopoeica the block of a pulley.^{[8][2][9][10]} Its derivatives are older: Aristophanes uses the verb μαγγανεύω (manganeúō), “to use charms”, of Circe, and Plato has μαγγανεία (manganeía), “trickery by spells”.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word lived on in two lines of meaning.^[5][6] As a technical term it named the block of a pulley (also in a 3rd-century AD papyrus), an iron peg or bolt in the scholia on Aristophanes, and in the glossaries a war engine equal to the Latin ballista.^[8][2][4] Hesychius adds the senses “charms” and “hunting net”.^[8][5] The derivatives kept the sense of trickery: μαγγανεύω (manganeúō) “to deceive by artifice”, μαγγανεία (manganeía) “jugglery”, μαγγανευτής “impostor”, and with the Latin suffix -άριος, μαγγανάριος, a “sorcerer” in a 3rd-century papyrus and an “engineer” in Pappus.^[5][6]

It was borrowed into Latin as manganum, a machine of war, whence Italian mangano (“sling”).^[2][6][5] Latin mangō, a dealer who dresses up his wares, may come from a related Greek form.^{[2][6][5][11]} Through Latin the word spread to Middle High German mange (“catapult”) and German Mangel (“mangle for laundry”).^[2][6] English mangonel, a stone-throwing engine, comes through Old French from Medieval Latin, and English mangle, the laundry press, probably goes back to the same Latin word through Dutch.^[12] Coptic borrowed the Greek word as Coptic ⲙⲁⲛⲅⲁⲛⲟⲛ (manganon), recorded from about AD 800.^[13]

In medieval vernacular Greek μάγγανο(ν) meant a windlass or crane, a siege engine, a trap, and a press for oil, wine or for glossing silk.^[14] Modern Greek has μάγκανο (mánkano), μαγγανεύω (manganévo, “to bewitch”) and μαγγάνι (mangáni, “loom, press”).^[15][5]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Heraclitus' Homeric Allegories uses the noun for a philtre, and Hero's Belopoeica for the block of a pulley.^{[8][2][9][10]}
• 3rd century AD – A London papyrus uses it of a pulley, and another papyrus has μαγγανάριος (manganários, “sorcerer”).^[8][5][4]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as charms and as a hunting net.^[8][16][10]
• About AD 800 – Coptic texts have it as ⲙⲁⲛⲅⲁⲛⲟⲛ (manganon).^[13]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it for a windlass, a siege engine, a trap and a press.^[14]
• Mid-13th century – English borrows mangonel from Old French.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A means of charming or bewitching; a philtre, a charm.^[8][2]
2. (mechanics) The block of a pulley.^[8][6]
3. An iron peg or bolt.^[8][2]
4. (in the phrase μ. πολεμικόν) A war engine, a catapult or ballista.^[8][2][6]
5. A hunting or fishing net (Hesychius).^[8][2]

Word family

• μαγγανεία (manganeía)
• μαγγανεύω (manganeúō)

Related words

• μηχανή (mēkhanḗ)
• Latin manganum
• English mangonel

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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
14. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
15. ^ Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
16. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)