ˈmainour, ˈmanner Obs. exc. Hist. or arch.
Forms: 5 menowr, manor, 6–8 maner, (6 mayner, -ure, 6–7 maynour, 7 manoir), 7–8 Law Dicts. manour, meinor, -our(e, 6– mainour, manner.
[a. AF. meinoure, mainoure, mainoevere, a. OF. maneuvre, lit. ‘hand-work’: see manœuvre.
From the etymology, it would seem probable that the original sense was ‘the act or fact (of a crime)’, as in 2 below. The AFr. examples, however, already show the concrete sense as in 1. The phrase pris ov mainoure (‘taken with the mainour’; = capta cum manuopere, Fleta, c 1290) seems to have been framed to render the OE. æt hæbbendre handa ᵹefangen: see hand-habend a. Since the 16th c. the word has in non-technical use often been confused with manner n., and assimilated to that word in spelling.]
1. Law. The stolen thing which is found in a thief's possession when he is arrested: chiefly in phr. taken, found with the mainour.
| [1275 Act 3 Edw. I, Stat. Westm. i. c. 15 Toz que sunt pris ov meinoure. 1311 Act 5 Edw. II, Ordin. c. 19 Qe desormes nul ne soit pris ne enprisone pur vert ne pur veneson, si il ne soit trove ove mainoure. 1399 Liber Cust. 487 Et quod prædictus Dux..haberet quæcunque bona et catalla vocata ‘manuopera’ capta vel capienda cum quacunque persona infra..feoda prædicta.] ? 1472 Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 26 One Richard of the Burgh, that had take and led away feloniously certaine ky and other cattell..was take and arested with the said manor att Spofford, whearat they yett remaine. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 8 Yet al had he courtoys hanged whan he fonde hym with the menowr, he had not moche mysdon ne trespaced. 1550 Latimer Serm. bef. Edw. VI, D iv, Euen as a theefe that is taken with the manner when [ed. 1584 that] he stealeth. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (1895) 69 Moneye fownde abowte them shoulde betraye the robberye. They shoulde be no soner taken wyth the maner, but furth wyth they shoulde be punysshed. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 347 O Villaine, thou stolest a Cup of Sacke eighteene yeeres agoe, and were taken with the manner. 1607 Cowell Interpr., Mainour, alias Manour, alias Meinoure, signifieth in our common lawe, the thing that a theefe taketh away or stealeth. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. 303 When a thief was taken with the mainour, that is, with the thing stolen upon him, in manu. 1838–42 Arnold Hist. Rome (1846) I. xiv. 293 note, No power could bail a thief taken with the manner, that is, with the thing stolen upon him. 1867 Pearson Hist. Eng. I. 274 The thief overtaken with the mainour might be killed. |
2. with (later in) the mainour (usually manner): in the act of doing something unlawful, ‘in flagrante delicto’.
| 1530 Palsgr. 752/1, I take with the maner, as a thefe is taken with thefte, or a person in the doyng of any other acte, je prens sur le faict. 1566 Pasquine in a Traunce 107 Whether fryers..hauing bene so often taken with the maner to vse deceyte,..be therefore any more to be trusted afterwarde. 1579 Termes of the Lawe 144 b (s.v. Maynour), We commonlye vse to saye when we finde one doing of an vnlawfull act, that wee tooke him wyth the mainour, or manner. 1597 Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1612) 46 Being taken in the manner, the Christians stoned him to death. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xxi. ii. 168 [He] committed those and such like outrages..but being taken with the manoir and convict, he forbare and abstained. 1611 Bible Num. v. 13 If..a man lye with her carnally,..and there be no witnesse against her, neither she be taken with the maner [etc.]. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 282 They feigne that when Venus and Mars were in bed together, they were deprehended or taken in the manner, as we say, by Mercury. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 124, I held it beneath me to be caught in the manner. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xii, ‘Ha! my jolly Smith’, he said, ‘have I caught thee in the manner?’ 1866 Chamb. Jrnl. No. 28. 261 If he were taken in the act or mainour. |