mandil

English

WOTD – 20 March 2017

Etymology

A medieval Venetian portrait of Ismail I (1487–1524), the Shah of Iran and the founder of the Safavid dynasty. It is in the collection of the Uffizi in Florence, Italy.

From Arabic مَنْدِيل (mandīl, “sash; turban cloth; handkerchief”), already borrowed before Islam from Byzantine Greek μανδίλιον (mandílion), μαντίλιον (mantílion), μανδήλη (mandḗlē, “cloth; hand towel; handkerchief; tablecloth”) (the last word found in an Egyptian papyrus dated to 481 AD), from Latin mantēlium, mantēle (“hand towel, napkin”), probably from manus (“hand”) + tergere (“to rub, wipe, wipe off; to clean”). Compare French mendil (“turban, turban cloth”) (1659; translating German Mendil from a 1656 source).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmændɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: man‧dil

Noun

mandil (plural mandils)

1. (chiefly Persia, historical) A turban; cloth used to make a turban.
   • 1634, Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. Into Afrique and the Greater Asia, especially the Territories of the Persian Monarchie: And some Parts of the Orientall Indies, and Iles Adiacent. […], London: Printed by William Stansby, and Iacob Bloome, →OCLC; republished as William Foster, editor, Travels in Persia 1627–1629. Abridged and Edited by Sir William Foster [...] with an Introduction and Notes (Broadway Travellers), London: G[eorge] Routledge & Sons, 1928, →OCLC, page 79:

     His turban, or mandil [mandīl], was of finest white silk interwoven with gold, bestudded with pearl[s] and carbuncles; [...]

   • 1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “MANDIL”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […] In Two Volumes, volumes II (I–Z), London: […] James and John Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page 492, column 2:

     MANDIL, the Name of a Cap or Turban wore by the Perſians. The Mandil is formed, by firſt wrapping round the Head a Piece of fine white Linen five or six Ells long; over this they wrap, in the ſame manner, a Piece of Silk of the ſame Length, and oftentimes of great Value. To make the Mandil genteel, Care muſt be taken, that in wrapping the Silk, it be ſo managed, as that the ſeveral Colours, found in the ſeveral Folds, make a kind of Waves, ſomewhat like what we see in marbled Paper.

   • 1874, H[enry] H[ardy] Cole, “Textile Fabrics”, in Catalogue of the Objects of Indian Art Exhibited in the South Kensington Museum […], London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswode, […] [a]nd sold by Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 243:

     [T]he Mandíl is used by officers in the army, and is a muslin turban with gold stripes, spots, and ends.

   • 2015, Willem Floor, Edmund Herzig, editors, Iran and the World in the Safavid Age (International Library of Iranian Studies; 2), London, New York, N.Y.: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation, →ISBN, page 296:

     Two inhabitants of the country on either side of the cartouche [of a map] represent the native population. On the left, a moustachioed nobleman, wearing a cloak and mandil (turban) grasps the cartouche with his right hand, and with his left holds up a bowl.

Alternative forms

• mundil

Related terms

• mandilla
• mandylion
• mantilla

Anagrams

• maldin', lamnid, maldin

Old French

Alternative forms

• mendil
• mandilh

Noun

mandil oblique singular, m (oblique plural mandiz or mandilz, nominative singular mandiz or mandilz, nominative plural mandil)

1. small coat

Spanish

Etymology

From Arabic مَنْدِيل (mandīl), from Byzantine Greek μανδίλιον (mandílion), μαντίλιον (mantílion), μανδήλη (mandḗlē, “cloth, hand towel, handkerchief, tablecloth”), from Latin mantēlium, mantēle, hence doublet of mantel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /manˈdil/ [mãn̪ˈd̪il]
• Rhymes: -il
• Syllabification: man‧dil

Noun

mandil m (plural mandiles)

1. apron

   Synonym: delantal

Derived terms

• mandilón

 

Further reading

• “mandil”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 23rd edition, Royal Spanish Academy, 2014 October 16