Manx, a. and n.
(mæŋks)
Forms: 6 maniske, 7 manques, 7–9 manks, 9 mankes, manx.
[Metathetic a. ON. *mansk-r (whence directly the 16th c. form maniske), f. Man- (nom. Mǫn:—*Manu, a. OIrish Manu), the Isle of Man.]
A. adj. a. Of or pertaining to the Isle of Man, its inhabitants, language, etc.
| 1572 Act 14 Eliz. c. 5 §34 Yf any suche Maniske or Iryshe Vacabounde or Beggar ben alredy or shall at any tyme hereafter be set on Land in any parte of England or of Wales. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 67 Scaliger never heard of the Manks language, spoken by ours of the Ile of Man. 1765 Ann. Reg. 61 Books of devotion in the Manks tongue. 1860 All Year Round No. 68. 420, I believe a Manx sermon is now seldom heard. |
b. Manx cat: a tailless variety of the domestic cat, indigenous to the Isle of Man. Manx codlin: a kind of apple. Manx penny: a coin stamped with the device of three legs arranged in a form suggestive of a Catherine wheel. Manx puffin or Manx shearwater = Puffinus anglorum.
| 1678 Ray's Willughby's Ornith. Index, Puffin 325. Manks Puffin 333. 1818 in Trans. Horticult. Soc. (1826) III. 320 Manx Codlin. 1835 Jenyns Man. Brit. Vertebr. 285 Procellaria Anglorum, Temm. (Manks Shearwater). 1859 Wood Nat. Hist. I. 202 The Manx Cat..possessing hardly a vestige of a tail. a 1881 Carlyle in Harper's Mag. (1883) Nov. 877/1 [He] hadn't the heart to..watch a woman..making a Manx penny of herself. |
B. n.
1. (As pl.) The people of the Isle of Man.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 233/1 The Manks or Manings [are] a people that inhabit the Isle of Man. 1809 Acc. Isle of Man 74 The Manks pay a decent and feeling regard to the memory of their deceased friends. 1899 J. MacTaggart Mackinnon & Bards 68 The Englishman, the Welsh, the Manx, The artless Irishman, the Scot. |
2. The Celtic language spoken in the Isle of Man. (Now extinct).
| 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 106 The Language of Ireland is like that of the North of Scotland, in many things like the Welch and Manques. 1702 W. Sacheverell Acc. Isle of Man 8 In the Northern part of the Island they speak a deeper Manks, as they call it, than in the South. 1835 Cregeen Manks Dict. Pref., The Manks is now seldom spoken or written in its original purity. 1859 W. Gill Kelly's Manks Gram. Introd. 9 In the schools throughout the Island the Manx has ceased to be taught. 1970 B. M. H. Strang Hist. Eng. ix. 402 One IE language (Manx) has become extinct since the Second World War. |
3. A Manx cat.
| 1889 Daily News 23 Oct. 7/1 A solitary couple of Manxes [at a cat-show]. |
Hence ˈManxman, ˈManxwoman, a native of the Isle of Man.
| 1702 W. Sacheverell Acc. Isle of Man 113 Michael, a Manksman, a Person of great Merit and Exemplary Life. 1823 Scott Peveril v, Born a Mankesman—bred and nursed in the island. 1894 Hall Caine (title) The Manxman. 1904 in N.E.D. 1974 J. Mann Sticking Place viii. 132 I'm a Manxwoman. |