Etymologically
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manipularis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ma.nɪ.pʊˈɫaː.rɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ma.ni.puˈlaː.ris][1]

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

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