maniple
(ˈmænɪp(ə)l)
Forms: (? 4), 7 manaple, 6 mainipul, manypule, manyple, Sc. manipil, 7 -pul, 7–8 -pule, (7, 9 manuple), 6– maniple.
[a. OF. maniple (more commonly manipule as in mod.Fr.), ad. L. manipul-us handful, troop of soldiers, f. manus hand + *pl-, weak form of root *plē- to fill (as in plēnus full).
In med.L. manipulus was also used in sense 3 below. Henschel's Du Cange has several isolated instances in which manipulus and the related manipula seem to have meant ‘something carried in the hand’; the latter is applied to a workman's tool (? a trowel), ? a staff, an apron; the former is applied to a bowl of some kind. There are also instances of manipulus, manipula, in the sense ‘servant’.]
† 1. A handful, lit. and fig. Obs.
| 1632 B. Jonson Magn. Lady i. 1, I ha' seen him waite at Court, there, with his Maniples Of papers, and petitions. 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶80 Why is not a manipule of Purselane equivalent to two grains of opium, when [etc.]. 1657 Tomlinson Renou's Disp. 136 A maniple with the medicks is as much as can be contained in a hand. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Ep. Ded., With much excuse we bring these low delights, and poor maniples to your Treasure. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 442/1 A Manuple or great Handfull. 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. (1695) 75 [Flax] when ripe, 'tis pulled and set up in maniples, or large handfuls, to dry them. 1752 Ainsworth Lat. Dict., A maniple (handful) Manipulus. 1829 Examiner 371/2 Look at the mere maniples of people who say, speaking of themselves, the Church! |
¶ b. Whimsically used for: The hand.
| 1833 Fraser's Mag. VIII. 658 His two unhallowed and incarnadine maniples of reeking digits. 1893 Gunter Miss Dividends 16 Ferdie finds his hand grasped warmly in a set of bronzed maniples. |
2. Roman Antiq. A subdivision of the Roman legion, of which a cohort contained three, numbering 120 men each among the hastati and principes, and 60 each among the triarii.
| 1533 Bellenden Livy ii. (S.T.S.) I. 148 The tothir consul..Ischit furth..with certane manipillis of armyt men. 1629 Maxwell tr. Herodian (1635) 271 The light armed souldiers had lanes made between the severall Maniples to sally forth as occasion served. 1658 Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus ii, Thus were the maniples and cohorts of the Hastiti, Principes and Triarii placed in their bodies. 1842 Arnold Hist. Rome III. 100 The Roman velites..were soon driven back upon the hastati and principes, and passed through the intervals of the maniples to the rear. 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 750/2 Two ‘maniples’ or divisions of 60 men each. |
| attrib. 1891 Nettleship & Sandys Seyffert's Dict. Class. Antiq. 347/1 A further important novelty introduced by Marius was the use of the cohort-formation, instead of the maniple-formation. |
† b. In modern warfare, a small band of soldiers of more or less definite number. Obs.
| 1574 H. G. Briefe Tables G ij, Thou, for to cause that the raye maye go with an euennesse, shalte cause this maniple to go by fiue in a ranke in breadth. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iii. ii. 46 A Maniple is here called so many rankes throughout the battell, as the battell is in length, at so many per ranke as they march in ordinance or array. Ibid., Any part of shot or pikes, that be drawne a part, to be set to defend any straight, or to scarmush, may also bee called a Maniple. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 66 Captaine Blany diuided his men into three Maniples. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiii. 62 They vse to martiall..those squadrons in rankes like Manaples, which is foure square. 1641 Baker Chron. (1679) 232/2 The Rereward..consisting of two thousand mingled Weapons, with two wings of Horsemen,..all of them cast into square maniples. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 70 Untill hee see our small divided maniples cutting through at every angle of his ill united and unweildy brigade. |
3. Eccl. In the Western Church, one of the Eucharistic vestments, consisting now of a strip of stuff from two to four feet in length and worn suspended from the left arm near the wrist by the celebrant, deacon, and subdeacon: said to have been orig. a napkin held in the left hand for the purpose of wiping the tears shed for the sins of the people; = fanon 1. (For a later interpretation of its symbolism see quot. c 1532.)
The words used on putting on the maniple, ‘Merear, Domine, portare manipulum fletus et doloris’, look like a reminiscence of Ps. cxxv[i]. 6 (Vulg.), and it seems possible that the term may have originated from this formula. (So, as one of several suggestions, in Durandus Rationale iii. vi, De Manipulo; he explains ‘manipulus’ as = præmium.)
| 1346 in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 49 note, Un vestement sainct, aube, manaple, stole et chesible. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 16 b, Fyrst do on the amys, than the albe, than the gyrdell, than the manyple, than the stoole, than the chesybyll. c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1068 The manypule doth sygnifye the same [corde] wherof his preciouse handes were bounde. 1620 Melton Astrolog. 16 Albes, Copes, and Maniples. 1774 T. West Antiq. Furness (1805) 361 With a stole about his neck, and a maniple on his left arm. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers I. v. 424 The Anglo-Saxons..wore the maniple, as we do now, on the left wrist. 1853 Hook Ch. Dict. (1871) 474 The maniple or manuple was originally a strip of linen suspended from the left arm of the priest, and used to wipe away the perspiration from the face. 1885 R. W. Dixon Hist. Ch. Eng. III. 190 According to the old offices, the deacons to be ordained were presented in amice, alb, girdle and maniple. |
† b. App. used for: A wristlet or cuff. Obs.—0
| 1611 Cotgr., Manchon d'hermines, a Maniple charged, or powdered, with Ermines. |
4. maniple of the curates [Eccl. L. manipulus curatorum]: a book containing a brief summary of certain ecclesiastical canons.
| 1706 tr. Dupin's Eccl. Hist. 16th C. II. iv. vii. 423 That Parish Priests shall..have a Bible with Commentaries and the Maniple of the Curates. |