manacle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmænək(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈmænəkəl/
Forms: form: manacles
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English manacle, manakelle, manakil, manakyll, manicle, manikil, manycle, manykil, manykle, from Anglo-Norman manicle, manichle (“gauntlet; handle of a plough; (in plural) manacles”), and Middle French manicle, Old French manicle (“armlet; gauntlet; (in plural) manacles”) (modern French manicle, manique (“gauntlet”)), from Latin manicula (“handle of a plough; manacle”), from manus (“hand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon, signal”)) + -cula (from -culus, variant of -ulus (suffix forming diminutive nouns)).
The verb is probably derived from the noun, although according to the Oxford English Dictionary it is attested slightly earlier.
Senses: examples: text: And gainſt the General we will lift our ſwords
And either lanch his greedie thirſting throat,
Or take him priſoner, and his chaine ſhall ſerue
For Manackles, till he be ranſom’d home.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
text: If 'gainſt your ſelfe you be incens'd, wee'le put you / (Like one that meanes his proper harme) in Manacles, / Then reaſon ſafely with you: [...]
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ix], page 7, column 2:
english: If you are angry with yourself, we'll put you / (Like one that means to commit suicide) in manacles, / then reason safely with you: …
translation: If you are angry with yourself, we'll put you / (Like one that means to commit suicide) in manacles, / then reason safely with you: …
bold_translation_offsets: 91
99
text: For my ſake weare this [a bracelet], / It is a Manacle of Loue, Ile place it / Vpon this fayreſt Priſoner.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 370, column 1:
text: "If you will go quietly with us we will employ no force," said the man in uniform; "otherwise we must use these;" and Haldane shuddered as light steel manacles were produced.
ref: 1877, Edward Payson Roe, A knight of the nineteenth century, Collier, page 109:
text: Examining the manacles I saw that they fastened with a massive spring lock.
ref: 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “A Duel to the Death”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, →OCLC, page 143:
text: [T]he ships departed with equipment to keep the captives in check. Indeed it is that equipment – notably the chains and manacles – which to this day symbolizes the slave ships themselves. The repressive machinery of the slave ship – cannons, swivel guns, hand guns, cutlasses, chains, manacles, thumbscrews – speaks not only of the fear of the ship's owners and crew but points us directly to the essential reality of the slave ships.
ref: 2013, James Walvin, “Mutinies and Revolts”, in Crossings: Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave Trade, London: Reaktion Books, →ISBN, page 101:
glosses: A shackle for the wrist, usually consisting of a pair of joined rings; a handcuff; (by extension) a similar device put around an ankle to restrict free movement.
examples: text: Admit no other way to ſaue his life / [...] that you, his Siſter, / Finding your ſelfe deſir'd of such a perſon, / Whoſe creadit with the Iudge, or owne great place, / Could fetch your Brother from the Manacles / Of the all-building-Law: and that there were / No earthly meane to ſaue him, but that either / You muſt lay downe the treaſures of your body, / To this ſuppoſed, or elſe to let him ſuffer: / What would you doe?
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 69, column 2:
text: It is this [the commandment of God], which is the manacle of melancholy, when menacing ſuicide, and when deaf to every other diſſuaſive, or countroul; which quaſhes the ſilent, lurking purpoſe of diſontent, when misjudging it's preſent, and reckleſs of it's future deſtiny.
ref: 1795 November 29, Richard Ramsden, The Right to Life: A Sermon Preached before the University of Cambridge, November 29, 1795, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Printed by J. Burges printer to the University; and sold by W. H. Lunn, and J. Deighton, […]; and Mess. Rivington, […], →OCLC; quoted in “Art. 83. The Right to Life: […] By Richard Ramsden, […] [book review]”, in The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume XIX, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, […], 1796 April, →OCLC, page 477:
text: You will wonder how I have escaped the manacles that so long bound me. I cannot explain all now; but thus much I am permitted to say, that they were riveted by certain charms: and I cannot be assured of my freedom till I myself return them to him from whom they came—to him who has so long been the lord of my affections and master of my mind.
ref: 1835, [Catherine Maria Sedgwick], chapter XXI, in The Linwoods; or, “Sixty Years since” in America. … In Two Volumes, volume II, New York, N.Y.: Published by Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 47–48:
glosses: A fetter, a restriction.
Derived terms: immanacle
manaclelike
unmanacle
Related terms: manicle
manicule