manipulo

Forms

manipulō (present infinitive manipulāre); first conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin manipulus (“handful, sheaf”).^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it only from the glossaries, where the participle manipulātīs is explained as “gathered together”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, from manipulus “handful”, was to gather or bind together.^[1] In the Novum Glossarium it means to guide, in the Miracula Theoderici.^[3] In the charters of medieval Hungary and Croatia it means to bind the harvest into sheaves: crops are “cut, sheaved and shocked” in the field, or carried home sheaved on a cart.^[2] The TLL also records the noun manipulātor derived from it.^[1]

Timeline

• 1374 – A Croatian charter speaks of crops bound in sheaves.^[2]
• 1434 – A document forbids taking sheaved crops from the fields without the tithe-collector's knowledge.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Late Latin) To gather together.^[1]
2. (Medieval Latin) To guide.^[3]
3. (Medieval Latin) To bind into sheaves.^[2]

Related words

• English manipulate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
2. ^ a b c d e Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
3. ^ a b c Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT