mantele

Forms

mantēle n (genitive mantēlis); third declension^[1] Variant forms are mantīle, mantēlium and mantīlium,^[2] and the OLD gives mantēlum as the base form, with mantēlium a variant of it.^[3] Medieval spellings include mantela, mantelus, mantellum and manteolum.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin manus (“hand”) + tergeō (“to wipe”), a cloth for wiping the hands.^[3][5][6] De Vaan takes ⟨mantēlum⟩ to reflect Proto-Italic *man-tergslo-, and notes that it is disputed whether the Proto-Italic stem of “hand” had the ⟨u⟩ or not; under the verb he writes *manu-terg-slo-.^[7] Wiktionary finds the analysis likely in meaning, but the sound changes murky, given the variants and scribal errors.^[1] Walde explains the later ⟨mantīle⟩ as remodelled after the suffix -īlis.^[8] Lewis and Short derived it instead from the noun for “hand” and tēla (“web, cloth”).^[2]

Varro already explained ⟨mantēlium⟩ as the cloth “where the hands are wiped”.^[9][2] In late and Vulgar Latin it was confused with, and displaced by, diminutives of mantum (“cloak”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first record is Lucilius, with mantēlum, a hand towel or napkin.^[7] Köbler dates Lucilius c. 180–102 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was the towel or napkin used for wiping the hands, often with a nap: Virgil has tonsisque ferunt mantelia villis “and they bring napkins with clipped nap”.^[2][3] Pliny the Elder writes of scalps with the hair on worn before the chest in place of napkins.^[3] From Martial on it was also a tablecloth,^[3][2] and Isidore of Seville says that mantelia now cover tables, though, as the name shows, they were once offered for wiping the hands.^[10]

In Medieval Latin it was a tablecloth, a bed-cloth, a cloak and a maniple,^[4] and in church use an altar linen or a towel for the hands.^[11][12] Spanish mantel “tablecloth” is a borrowing of it, and Byzantine Greek borrowed it as μανδήλη (mandḗlē).^[1]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius has the form mantēlum.^[7][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro explains mantelium as the cloth on which hands are wiped.^[9][2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has mantelia with clipped nap in the Aeneid and the Georgics.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses mantele for a hand towel in the Fasti.^[3][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it for a tablecloth snatched from the table.^[3][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville notes that mantelia now serve to cover tables.^[10][6]
• 1015 – A Hungarian charter (in a copy of 1403) lists 29 mantilia among altar furnishings.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hand towel, a napkin.^[3][2]
2. A tablecloth.^[3][2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A bed-cloth.^[4][13]
4. (Medieval Latin) A cloak.^[4][13]
5. (Medieval Latin) A maniple.^[4][6]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An altar linen; a towel for the hands.^[11]

Related words

• mappa
• manus
• tergeō
• mantellum
• manuale

Usage notes

Georges distinguishes it from mappa: the mantele was the towel the host handed round for washing after the meal, the mappa the napkin proper that guests brought with them.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
10. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
11. ^ a b c Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
12. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences