mânecă

Forms

mânecă f (plural mâneci)^[1] The regional form mânică is found in Nicolae Costin's chronicle: „au găsit pistol mic în mănică supus” “they found a small pistol hidden in his sleeve”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin manica (“sleeve”), formed on manus (“hand”).^{[4][5][3][6][7][1]} It survives in all four branches: Aromanian mãnicã, Megleno-Romanian mǫnică and Istro-Romanian mărecă.^[4][8][9][6] Its Romance cognates include Italian manica, French manche, Catalan manega, Spanish manga and Portuguese manga, and Albanian has mëngë, also from the Latin word.^[4][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from a document of 1641.^[11] MDA2's is from Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686): „suciia mâneca și băga mâna în căldare” “he rolled up his sleeve and put his hand into the cauldron”.^[3][2] The sense was the part of a garment that covers the arm.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the sleeve itself the word took on figurative uses.^[5][11] Bălcescu used it for the wing of an army, after French manche, a sense dictionaries now mark as obsolete.^[11][5][12] In technical language it names devices shaped like a sleeve.^[5]

Many idioms are built on it: a trage de mânecă “to pester someone for something” or “to warn someone that they are lying”, a (nu) se lăsa tras de mânecă “(not) to need much asking”, a da cu mâneci largi “to give gladly”, a scoate din mânecă “to come up with an explanation on the spot”, and a o băga pe mânecă “to get scared”.^[5][3][11] Șăineanu explained the last from conjurers who make objects vanish up their sleeves.^[12] Scriban notes the western form mânecă and the eastern mânică.^[7] In Aromanian the word also means “rank, social class”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1641 – the first record, in a document.^[11]
• 1682–1686 – mâneca in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[3][2]
• 1825 – mânecă “sleeve”, with cu mâneci “sleeved” and the diminutive mânecuță, in the Lexicon of Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sleeve: the part of a garment that covers all or part of the arm.^[5][3]
2. (technical) A sleeve-shaped device or part.^[5]
3. (obsolete) The flank or wing of an army.^[5][11]

Word family

• mânecar
• mânecuță

Related words

• mână
• Aromanian mãnicã

Usage notes

The plural is mâneci;^[7] MDA2 records an older plural mânece.^[3] Pe sub mânecă means “secretly”.^[3][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mânecă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1470
4. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. mânecă
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 633
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 94
7. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 820
8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 696
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 195
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5300
11. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mânecă
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 380
13. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 373