Etymologically
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maniera

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Pronunciation

  • /maˈnjɛ.ra/[1]

Forms

maniera f (plural maniere)[1] Old forms include Old Italian manera, Old Italian mainera, Old Italian maynera and Old Italian magnera.[2][3] Pisan, Lucchese and Pistoiese dialects have magnèra.[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French maniere (1119), the noun use of the feminine of the Old French adjective manier (“done by hand, handy”), from Late Latin manuārius (“of the hand”), from Latin manus (“hand”).[5][6][7][8] DELI notes that the adjective, though recorded later (1160–1190), must be the older word.[5] Nocentini, DEI and Prati also name Old Occitan maniera as a source or intermediary.[6][4][9] Devoto reconstructs Vulgar Latin *manarius in place of the Late Latin form.[10]

The French word was also borrowed as Spanish manera and Portuguese maneira, and into English as manner.[6][4] The French adjective itself gave the old Italian adjective maniero (“tame, pleasant”).[9][11] The same Latin adjective is the source of mannaia “cleaver, axe”.[6][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the late 12th century.[2] DELI's first dated example is Bonagiunta Orbicciani of Lucca, around 1257, for a particular way of doing or being.[5][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named a way of acting, the outward look of a person or thing, customs, and a kind or variety: Boccaccio and Sacchetti use it for a sort of people or things.[2][9] The sense of an artist's or a school's style is recorded in Cennino Cennini in the 15th century.[5] DEI regards buone maniere “good manners” as a later, separate borrowing from French, parallel to German Manier in the 17th century.[4]

In art criticism maniera came to mean conventional repetition of formulas, and di maniera means “conventional, lacking originality”.[7][13] Manierismo was used for imitation of a model before 1810 (Luigi Lanzi), and the name of the late Renaissance movement was introduced by Werner Weisbach in a German article of 1919.[5] Manierato “affected” was condemned in 1813 as a stale Gallicism.[5]

Timeline

  • 1119 – French manière is first recorded.[5]
  • Late 12th century – Maniera appears in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.[2]
  • About 1257 – Bonagiunta Orbicciani uses it.[5][7]
  • 15th century – Cennino Cennini uses it for an artist's style.[5]
  • Before 1810 – Luigi Lanzi uses manierismo.[5]
  • 1919 – Werner Weisbach writes on Der Manierismus.[5]
  • 1934 – The Enciclopedia italiana has manierismo for the late Renaissance movement.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. manner, way: a particular way of acting, doing or being: Ognuno risolve i problemi alla sua maniera.[7][8][11]
  2. After in with an adjective, forming adverbial phrases: Ha risposto in maniera cortese. In maniera che means “so that”.[7][8][14]
  3. (usually plural) manners, behaviour towards others: buone maniere, cattive maniere.[7][8][15]
  4. Tact, courtesy: Con un po' di maniera lo convinci.[8][15]
  5. Custom, fashion: vestire alla maniera orientale.[8][13]
  6. (art) The style of an artist, a school or a period: il Picasso della prima maniera.[7][11][13]
  7. (art) Conventional imitation of formulas, lack of originality: un ritratto di maniera.[7][13]
  8. (literary) Kind, sort.[11]

Word family

  • manierato
  • manierismo
  • manierista
  • manieristico
  • manieroso
  • ammanierare

Usage notes

Maniera and modo are often interchangeable.[8] Fixed expressions include c'è modo e maniera, said when something has been done tactlessly, and the reproach che maniere!.[8][14][7] An archaic adjective maniero, feminine maniera, meant in falconry a tame, well-trained bird.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 676
  4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2349
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 627
  10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  13. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana