mantele

See also: mantelé

Latin

FWOTD – 1 June 2019

Alternative forms

• mantīle, mantēlium, mantīlium, mantēlum, mantellum

Etymology

A decomposition into manus (“hand”) and tergō (“to wipe, to rub”) would be semantically likely (compare Late Latin manutergium), but the morphological processes involved are murky, considering also the variants, the relationship of which is not without doubts, and their obscuration by scribal error. In late and vulgar Latin it was confounded with and driven away by diminutive forms of the Celtic mantus, mantum (“cloak”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈman.te.le/, [ˈmän̪t̪ɛɫ̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈman.te.le/, [ˈmän̪t̪ele]

Noun

mantēle n (genitive mantēlis); third declension

1. cloth to wipe hands or mouth, towel, napkin
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid I.701–702:

     Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cereremque canistris
     expediunt, tonsisque ferunt mantelia villis.

     The servants give the hands waters, and deal corn from wicker baskets, and bring towels of smooth hair.

2. (post-classical) tablecloth
   • 300s, Trebellius Pollio, Historia Augusta Gallieni Duo. 16 § 2–3:

     Ac ne eius praetereatur miseranda solertia, veris tempore cubicula de rosis fecit. De pomis castella composuit. Uvas triennio servavit. Hieme summa melones exhibuit. Mustum quem ad modum toto anno haberetur, docuit. Ficos virides et poma ex arboribus recentia semper alienis mensibus praebuit. Mantelibus aureis semper stravit. Gemmata vasa fecit eademque aurea.

     Lest his pitiable skills be left unmentioned, he used in spring-time to make sleeping-places of roses, and built castles of apples, preserved grapes for three years, and served melons in the depth of winter. He showed how new wine could be had all the whole year, and he could not but always serve out of season green figs and apples fresh from the trees, and he always spread his tables with golden covers. He made jewelled vessels, and golden ones too.

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mantēle	mantēlia
Genitive	mantēlis	mantēlium
Dative	mantēlī	mantēlibus
Accusative	mantēle	mantēlia
Ablative	mantēlī	mantēlibus
Vocative	mantēle	mantēlia

Descendants

• → Byzantine Greek: μανδήλη (mandḗlē) (see there for further descendants)
• → Galician: mantel, mantés
• → Spanish: mantel
  • Chavacano: mantél
  • → Classical Nahuatl: mantēlex

See also

• mappa

References

• Anne Viola Siebert (1999) Instrumenta Sacra. Untersuchungen zu römischen Opfer-, Kult- und Priestergeräten (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten; 44) (in German), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, page 262
• mantele in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “mantele”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press