manacle means 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. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 80 out of 100.
manacle is pronounced /ˈmænək(ə)l/.
Why “manacle” is a great word
A shackle for the wrist or hand, typically one of a pair, or any restraining device or influence. From Middle English, via Anglo-Norman and Old French *manicle*, from Latin *manicula* ("little hand, handle"), a diminutive of *manus* ("hand"). First attested in the 14th century. Unlike a "shackle" (a more general metal fastening for limb or link) or a "fetter" (which often binds the feet and figuratively impedes progress), "manacle" is the precise, personal clutch of cold iron on the wrist-bone. It is the specific weight of a linked pair, the metallic chime of one cuff striking the other, and the arresting focus on the hands—those instruments of creation and connection—rendered useless. To be manacled is to feel the body's most articulate parts sentenced to silence.
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.
noun
- 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.“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.”
- A fetter, a restriction.“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”
verb
- To confine with manacles.“[C]ome, / Ile manacle thy necke and feete together: / Sea water ſhalt thou drinke: thy food ſhall be / The freſh-brooke Muſſels, wither'd roots, and huskes / Wherein the Acorne cradled.”
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