mănunchi

Forms

mănunchi n (plural mănunchiuri)^[1] Old and regional variants include mănuchi, mărunchi, mărunche and mânunchi; the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has munuchi: „au vârât și munuchiul după ascuțit” “he thrust in the haft after the blade” (Judges 3:22).^[2][3][4] Besides the plural mănunchiuri, DEX records a rare masculine plural mănunchi, and the regional plural mănunche is also found.^[5][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin manuclus (“handful, sheaf”), a late form of manipulus (“handful, bundle”).^{[6][5][3][4][1]} Wiktionary gives the late form as Late Latin manuculus, refashioned so that it seemed to end in the diminutive suffix -uculus; it is attested in the prefixed form commanuculus and, syncopated, as ⟨manuclus⟩ in a manuscript of Seneca.^[1] The classical word itself is formed from manus (“hand”) and the root of pleō (“to fill”), so it was literally a “handful”.^[7][1] Candrea and Densusianu also start from ⟨manuclus⟩, which they equate with classical ⟨manip(u)lus⟩.^[8] Wiktionary takes the ⟨n⟩ before ⟨chi⟩ for a nasal infix, so that the variant mănuchi keeps the original shape.^[1]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian mãnuclju (“handful, bundle”).^[9][10][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian manocchio, Old French manoil, Occitan manolh, Catalan manoll, Spanish manojo and Portuguese molho.^[11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1642.^[4] In the 17th-century texts the word often means a handle or hilt: Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 renders Slavonic rukojętĭ “handle” with mănunchiu, and a lexicon of 1683 has mănuchiul.^[2] The Bible of 1688 has both senses: the haft of a dagger in Judges and mănunchiul de isop “the bunch of hyssop” in Exodus 12:22.^[2][4] MDA2 gives that Bible as its first record.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is what a reaper grips in one hand and cuts with the sickle, and so a handful of cut grain or grass laid on the field to dry; several such handfuls make a larger heap, and in some regions a sheaf of maize stalks.^[3][6] From a bunch of stalks the word passed to a bunch of flowers, a bundle of things of one kind, and figuratively a small group of persons or things that form a selection.^[3][12]

The sense “handle, hilt” is the older literary one and belonged to Moldavia and Wallachia;^[2][4] Cantemir writes of putting the West „supt mănunchiul săbiei sale” “under the hilt of his sword”.^[2][4] DEX still lists it, while NODEX marks it as dated.^[5][13] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses the word both as Latin manubrium “handle” and manipulus “handful”.^[14] In Bucovina mănunchiul de aur “the golden bunch” names the goldenrod.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1642 – the first record, as dated by Tiktin.^[4]
• 1649 – mănunchiu “handle” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[2]
• 1673 – the variant mănuchi in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – mănunchiul de isop “the bunch of hyssop” and munuchiul “the haft” in the Bucharest Bible.^[4][2][3]
• 1801 – manúnchiu “handle; handful” in Klein's dictionary.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A handful of stalks of wheat, grass and the like, as much as the hand can hold; in harvesting, the stalks cut at one stroke of the sickle or scythe.^[5][3]
2. A bunch of flowers; a bundle of several objects of the same kind tied together: un mănunchi de chei “a bunch of keys”.^[5][13]
3. (figurative) A small group of people or things that belong together or form a selection: un mănunchi de poezii “a handful of poems”.^[3][12]
4. A handle of a tool or weapon, a haft or hilt.^[5][2]

Word family

• mănunchiaș
• înmănunchea

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 Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 178
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1453
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mănunchi
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 628
6. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mănunchi
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mănunchi
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 119
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 628
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5306
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 37
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mănunchi
14. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 395
15. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. mănuchi