manipularis

Forms

manipulāris (neuter manipulāre); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] It is also spelled maniplāris and manuplāris.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin manipulus (“handful; maniple”) + -āris.^[2][4][1] manipulus is made from manus (“hand”) and the root of pleō (“to fill”), so a "handful";^[2][1] Varro already derived it from the word for hand.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it first,^[5] as a noun for a common soldier in the Truculentus (the soldiers mutter about the man whom parasites praise) and for fellow soldiers in the Mostellaria.^[2] The metre of the Truculentus line requires the full form manipulāris.^[4]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means belonging to a maniple, a company of the legion, and so belonging to the ranks: Ovid explains that soldiers are called manipulāris from the bundles of hay carried on poles as the first standards.^[3][2] Cicero speaks of manipulārēs iūdicēs, jurors drawn from the soldiery.^[3] As a noun it is a common soldier, a private,^[2][3] and a member of the same maniple, a fellow soldier.^[2] Tacitus and others use it of private soldiers as against officers.^[3] The TLL also records a by-form manipulārius.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a common soldier and of fellow soldiers.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of jurors drawn from the soldiery.^[3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid on the hay bundles that gave the name.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a maniple;^[2][3][1] (of soldiers) belonging to the ranks, private.^[2][3][1]

Noun

1. A common soldier, private; a marine.^[2][3][1]
2. A member of the same maniple, a fellow soldier, comrade.^[2][1]

Word family

• commanipulāris

Related words

• manipulus
• manus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de