mäng

Grammatical information: n.

Meaning: `philtre, charm, block of a pulley' (Hero Bel., Pap. III<sup>p</sup>), [`eiserner Pflock, Bolzen'] (Sch.), `throwing machine, ballista, tormentum' (Gloss., H.), `means to deceive, bewitch' (Heracl. All., H.).

Derivatives: μαγγανάριος `deceiver' (pap. III<sup>p</sup>), `mechanic' (Papp.), will be a loan from Latin. Denomin. verb μαγγανεύω `deceive, bewitch with artificial means, play tricks' with μαγγαν-εία `trickery' (Pl. Lg., Ph.), - εύματα pl. `charms, philtres' (Pl., Plu.), - ευτής `impostor, quack' (Suid., Phot.), - ευτικη τέχνη `agical art' (Poll.), - εύτριαι pl. H. s. βαμβακεύ-τριαι, - ευτήριον `haunt for impostors' (Them.).

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]

Etymology: The word got as a loan a wide spread: Lat. manganum `machine' (to Rom., e.g. Ital. mangano `sling') with the unclear byform mangō `a handler, who promotes his ware by artificial means' (from hell. *μάγγων?), from where mangōnium `dressing up ware', Alb. mangë `hemp-brake', mengji `medicine', MHG MLG mange `throwing-machine', NHG Mange(l) `smoothing roll(?) for laundry' (from where Balt., e.g. Lith. mañgalis `mangling-machine'). If we forget these loans, a few words from the farthest east and west remain, which have been connected as cognate with μάγγανον: Skt. mañju-, mañjula- `beautiful, sweet, charming', maṅgala n. `happiness, salvation, good omen' (all ep. class.), Osset. mäng `deceit'; Celt., MIr. meng `deceit, cleverness, ruse' (but Toch. A maṅk `guilt, fault, sin', adduced by Schneider, together with B meṅki `id.', also `smaller', with μανός, μάνυ). To this rather motley collection one may add further the group of μάσσω `knead', through which the most wide combinations can be made. - Lit. in Bq, WP. 2, 233, Pok. 731, W.-Hofmann s. mangō; esp. Meringer IF 19, 436f. a. 21, 282, whose attempts to make the history of these words concrete, are in principle no doubt correct, even when they lack confirmation or are in detail even wrong. - From an IE root * meng- (Pok. 731) the Greek form cannot be derived; the word must then be Pre-Greek (as was already stated by W.- Hofmann s.v. mango), where mang-an- is unproblematic. The Sanskrit words are semantically too far off (perh. they are of Dravidian origin, Mayrhofer KEWA547, 553 and EWAia 379f.). (Such isolated Sanskrit comparisons with Greek must often be discarded.) The other words will be loans from Latin. (Lith. mañgalis is a loan from German.) The original meaning was no doubt as Frisk assumed a technical instrument. The meaning `hemp-brake' goes in the same direction, but the meaning ballista I cannot easily combine. The meaning `mangling-machine' recurs several times (Germ. `Glättroll für Wäsche'). It served to `embellish' the cloths. From there the notion of deceit. It is a good example of the long life of a Pre-Greek word which was by some considered as IE.

Page in Frisk: 2,155