Etymograph

English

mangle

Mangle comes from Middle English mangelen.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mangelen
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1667mangle

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mangelen
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1667mangle

Earliest quotation: 1667, John Milton, Book VI: “mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail”.

The story

Alternate etymology derives mangle from Middle English *mankelen, a frequentative form of manken (‘to mutilate’), from Old English *mancian, bemancian (‘to maim’).

Every English word from Middle English mangelen

Another origin of mangle

  1. Germanc. 1650–presentMangel
  2. Dutchc. 1500–presentmangel‘lack, deficiency’
  3. Englishtodaymangle

Ca. 1700, from Dutch mangel, from Early Modern German Mangel (15th c.), enhanced form (by analogy with other tool names in -el) of Middle High German mange, from Medieval Latin manga, manganum, from Ancient Greek μάγγανον (mánganon).

Another origin of mangle

  1. Spanishc. 1500–presentmangle‘a mangrove, any of various plants of the genus Rhizophora’
  2. Englishtodaysame form

Borrowed from Spanish mangle, mangue, probably from an Arawak language (such as Taíno), or a Cariban language.

Today it means

verb To change, mutilate, or disfigure by cutting, tearing, rearranging, etc.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle English mangelen / mangle

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