manner
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmænə/
ipa: /ˈmænɚ/
rhymes: -ænə(ɹ)
homophone: manor
homophone: manna
Forms: form: manners
Etymology: From Middle English maner, manere, from Anglo-Norman manere, from Old French maniere, from Vulgar Latin *manāria, from feminine of Latin manuarius (“belonging to the hand”), from manus (“hand”). Compare French manière, Italian mannaia (“ax, axe”), Portuguese maneira and maneiro (“handy, portable”), Romanian mâner (“handle”), and Spanish manera.
Senses: examples: text: The treacherous manner of his mournful death.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Mode of action; way of performing or doing anything.
examples: text: His natural manner makes him seem like the boss.
text: [S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.
ref: 2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times:
glosses: Characteristic mode of acting or behaving; bearing.
examples: text: These people have strange manners.
glosses: One's customary method of acting; habit.
examples: text: Harriet was not insensible of manner; she had voluntarily noticed her father’s gentleness with admiration as well as wonder. Mr. Martin looked as if he did not know what manner was.
ref: 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 4, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
text: But Sophia's mother was not the woman to brook defiance. After a few moments' vain remonstrance her husband complied. His manner and appearance were suggestive of a satiated sea-lion.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
glosses: Good, polite behaviour.
glosses: The style of writing or thought of an author; the characteristic peculiarity of an artist.
examples: text: It is in a manner done already.
text: The fact that we have hundreds of positive, lesbian-affirming novels available today in no manner takes away from the basic high romance of The Price of Salt. The new edition is virtually the same in text as the original.
ref: 1984 December 29, Nancy Walker, “Classic Romance: Enduring Charm”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 8:
glosses: A certain degree or measure.
examples: text: All manner of persons participate.
glosses: Sort; kind; style.
glosses: Standards of conduct cultured and product of mind.
Synonyms: sense: mode of action
word: method
sense: mode of action
word: style
sense: mode of action
word: form
sense: mode of action
word: fashion
sense: mode of action
word: way
Derived terms: all manner of
bad manners
bedside manner
by no manner of means
good manners
in a manner
in a manner of speaking
mannerable
manner adverb
mannered
mannerism
mannerist
manneristic
mannerization
mannerize
manner legs
mannerless
mannerly
manner of articulation
manner of death
mannerpunk
mannersome
not by any manner of means
overmanner
place-manner-time
table manners
time-manner-place
to the manner born
webside manner
with the manner