manganum

Forms

manganum n (genitive manganī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μάγγανον (mánganon).^[1][2][3][4] The Greek word meant a philtre or charm, the block of a pulley and, in glossaries, a catapult;^[5] Beekes considers it Pre-Greek and notes that, as a loan, it spread widely through Latin.^[5] Köbler instead refers to Proto-Indo-European *meng- after Pokorny.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Georges and Gaffiot first cite it from Hegesippus, who tells how a man made himself a manganum of wood, a contrivance or machine.^[2][3][4] The TLL also has it in a letter of Nebridius among Augustine's letters, asking by what art, devices, instruments or drugs something is done.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it named any artful contrivance or apparatus.^[4][2] A Greek–Latin glossary renders μάγγανον (mánganon) with it.^[4][7]

In Medieval Latin it kept the sense of a device or mechanism and became the name of a stone-throwing engine of war, the mangonel;^[8][7] Niermeyer lists by-forms with mangon- and mangen-, and manga and mango.^[8][7] Etymonline traces English mangonel through Old French to a Medieval Latin diminutive of this machine word.^[9] Italian mangano continues it.^[1][5]

Timeline

• 354–430 AD – A letter in Augustine's correspondence uses the plural for the devices by which something is contrived.^[4][6]
• mid-13th century – English borrows mangonel, a diminutive of the Medieval Latin word, through Old French.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A contrivance, apparatus or machine.^[4][2][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) A stone-throwing engine of war, a mangonel or ballista.^[8][7][3]

Usage notes

Wiktionary also gives a New Latin manganum “manganese”, altered from Medieval Latin magnēsia.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com