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mantello

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word mantello

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1178–1182 Savona document More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin mantellum
Ultimate origin
Latin mantellum
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mantellum
French manteau
Italian mantello

Pronunciation

  • /manˈtɛl.lo/[1]

Forms

mantello m (plural mantelli)[1] The old plural was also feminine, le mantella, and older forms include Old Italian mantelo, Old Italian mantel and Old Italian mantiello.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mantellum (“cloak, covering”), a word of Plautus.[3][5][6][7][8] The same word is French manteau, Occitan mantel, Catalan mantell and Spanish mantillo “humus”; its diminutive Spanish mantilla was borrowed as Italian mantiglia.[5][9] Latin also lent it to Germanic, as in German Mantel, and to Insular Celtic.[7]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown, and dictionaries keep it apart from mantēle (“towel”), for which a compound of manus (“hand”) and tergeō (“to wipe”) has been proposed.[5] Nocentini sees no need to separate them, since the variant mantēlum is almost the same word and both name a piece of cloth.[5] Nocentini takes Late Latin mantum, recorded from the 4th century, as a back-formation from it, read as a false diminutive, the source of manto.[5][10] Wiktionary instead makes the word a diminutive of ⟨mantum⟩, perhaps from Gaulish, and Devoto thinks of a Mediterranean stem shared with mantica (“bag”).[1][11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Savona document of 1178–1182, for a garment of cloth or fur fastened at the neck and worn over the shoulders.[2][5] DELI cites Ugieri Apugliese's plural mantella (before 1250) and the form mantelo in a Pistoian account book of the first half of the 13th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used mantello for a horse blanket, for the outer surface of anything (a body, an animal's fur, a plant), and figuratively for an outward appearance hiding the truth, a pretext.[2][7] Boccaccio's king comes out of his room inviluppato in un gran mantello.[12]

The sense of an animal's coat dates from Pulci (before 1484), and that of a protective casing in machines from Francesco di Giorgio Martini (before 1502).[3] In the 19th century, under the influence of French manteau, it came to mean any woman's coat (1821), and figuratively a blanket of snow or mist (1847).[3][13] Science added the mantle of molluscs (1931) and the Earth's mantle between crust and core (1973).[3]

Timeline

  • 1178–1182 – A Savona document has the first record.[2][5]
  • Before 1250 – Ugieri Apugliese uses the plural mantella.[3]
  • 1271–1275 – The diminutive mantelletto is recorded.[5]
  • Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses mantello for an animal's coat.[3]
  • Before 1502 – Francesco di Giorgio Martini uses it for a protective casing.[3]
  • 1821 – It is used for an elegant woman's coat.[3]
  • 1847 – The figurative “blanket” is recorded.[3]
  • 1931 – The Enciclopedia italiana uses it for the mantle of molluscs.[3]
  • 1973 – The geological sense, the Earth's mantle, enters the dictionaries.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cloak, cape: a long, wide, sleeveless garment, often hooded, worn over the clothes and fastened at the neck: un mantello di lana con il cappuccio.[6][14][13]
  2. A woman's coat of any kind, also with sleeves.[6][14][13]
  3. (figurative) A layer that covers a surface, a blanket: un mantello di foglie secche.[6][14][4]
  4. (figurative) A false appearance, a pretext: sotto il mantello della generosità.[6][14][4]
  5. (zoology) The coat of a mammal, especially its colour: a horse's mantello baio.[6][14][13]
  6. (zoology) The mantle of molluscs, which secretes the shell; the covering of tunicates and brachiopods.[6][14][4]
  7. (geology) The Earth's mantle, the layer between the crust and the core.[15][4][13]
  8. (technology) A casing or part of a machine that covers or contains other parts.[6][14][13]
  9. (theatre) Mantello d'Arlecchino, the drapery framing the stage opening.[4][13][16]

Word family

  • mantella
  • mantelletto
  • mantellina
  • mantellata
  • smantellare
  • ammantellare

Usage notes

The proverb il sarto fa il mantello secondo il panno means that everyone works with the means available, and rivoltare il mantello is to change one's opinion.[17][16] A minor homograph mantello, a regional fish name for a ray-like fish (perhaps the manta), is compared by Battaglia with Spanish manta.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2355
  8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 631
  11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  18. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 742

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Mantello.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/mantello. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·