manovale

Forms

manovale m (plural manovali)^[1] Old forms with the same sense are Old Italian manoale and Old Italian manuale.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin manuālis (“held in the hand; of the hand”), used as a noun for “one who works with his hands”.^[4][5][6][1] The consonant ⟨v⟩ is a glide that grew between the two vowels in hiatus, as in the old form ⟨manoale⟩.^[5][7][6] Devoto compares the same northern epenthesis in the city name ⟨Genova⟩ from Latin ⟨Genua⟩.^[8] Nocentini sees the word as a popular Italian adaptation of manuale, and GRADIT likewise calls it a variant of that adjective.^[5][9] The learned adjective is its doublet.^[1][6]

The noun Medieval Latin manuale is already recorded at Farfa before 1099.^[2] DEI regards the noun as a development found only in Italy, absent from the rest of Romance.^[2] Meyer-Lübke lists other outcomes of the Latin adjective elsewhere: Logudorese mannale (“pig fattened at home”) and Spanish mangual (“a kind of flail”).^[10] The source is formed from Latin manus + -ālis.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is the form manoale in an account of a Pisan ship of the 11th or 12th century, and manovale appears before 1250 in Ugieri Apugliese, a builder's helper beside the master mason: modonatore e manovale, / lignimaestro (“brick-moulder and labourer, master carpenter”).^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

From the 14th century the word named the unskilled hands on a building site: Sacchetti's masters and labourers come out of work asking for their pay, and a Sienese hospital statute lets its overseer hire maestri e manovali.^[12] Tommaseo defines it as the man who serves the mason, bringing him the materials for building, and records the extension to helpers in other crafts, as when Cellini had much of a model made by manovali who did not know the trade.^[13]

As an adjective, manovale meant “done by hand, manual” in Cavalca and in 16th-century prose (esercizi manovali “manual tasks”), a use now obsolete.^[12][13] The collective manovalanza dates from before 1937.^[5] Modern usage extends the noun to anyone with purely executive, subordinate tasks in an organisation, often of criminals.^[9][14][15]

Timeline

• 11th–12th century – Manoale appears in a Pisan ship's account.^[4]
• Before 1250 – Ugieri Apugliese uses manovale.^[4][12]
• 14th century – The older form manuale is recorded.^[2]
• 14th century – Catherine of Siena uses manoale.^[2]
• Before 1937 – Manovalanza “the body of labourers” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An unskilled labourer, especially on a building site, who does the heavy work and helps the muratore: Il manovale porta i mattoni al muratore.^[9][6][7]
2. (by extension, often derogatory) Someone with only executive, subordinate tasks in an organisation, especially a criminal one: i manovali del clan.^[9][14][15]

Word family

• manovalanza

Related words

• mano
• manuale
• Latin manuālis

Usage notes

The noun is also used in the feminine.^[15][16] A proverb says that one stroke of the master is worth more than a hundred of the labourer.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2353
3. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 630
4. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 271
9. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 729
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli