Mantle

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Mantle

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Jun 08, 2023 5:53 pm

• mantle •


Pronunciation: mæn-têl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A loose, sleeveless coat, or cape, a cloak, a blanket that is worn. 2. Anything that covers or conceals. 3. A figurative cloak symbolizing authority. 4. The feathers of the back (and wings) of a bird if of a color different from the rest of the bird.

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Notes: Here is a word so often confused with mantel that almost all dictionaries now accept mantle as a synonym of mantel, but not vice versa, that is mantel(piece) is not a synonym of mantle. Let's ignore the modern dictionaries and keep the spellings straight. It comes with a diminutive, mantlet "a small mantle" and two adjectives, mantled "covered with a mantle" and mantleless "without a mantle".

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In Play: Mantles are often thought a thing of the past, but women, less often men, still wear them: "Maude Lynn Dresser loves to mosey about the town in one of her many mantles in spring and fall." The second sense applies to all coverings: "The mantle of snow on the hills promises a healthy water supply for the coming year." The third sense may imply deceit: "Robin Banks used the mantle of the presidency to cloak his criminal activity."

Word History: Mantle and mantel share the same origin; mantel refers to the piece of wood or stone which "covers", i.e. is over the fireplace, so the spelling distinction fits the broad distinction between the modern meanings. Both come from Old French mantel "cloak, bedspread, cover", inherited from Latin mantele "towel, napkin, cloth", later to become Spanish mantel "tablecloth". This word was a compound comprising man(us) "hand" + tela "web, warp, weave". PIE manos meant "man" and, while the association of "man" with "hands" is there, the ancient Greek word for "hand" was mare, so we get lost at this point. Tela is the noun for texere "to weave" ([teksere]), which comes from PIE tek- "to weave, plait", remains of which we find with that meaning preserved in Russian tkat', Serbian tkati, Polish tkać, Czech tkát, Macedonian tkaat, and Bulgarian tŭkat. (Now let's thank Barbara Beeton for pointing out the spelling confusion around today's Good Word in her recommendation of Mohole.)
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