maniple

/ˈmænɪp(ə)l/

Etymology

From Late Middle English maniple, manyple (“scarf worn as vestment, maniple”), borrowed from Middle French, Old French maniple, manipule (“handful; troop of soldiers; scarf worn as vestment”) (modern French manipule), from Latin manipulus (“bundle, handful; troop of soldiers”), from manus (“hand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon, signal”)) + the weakened root of pleō (“to fill; to fulfil”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The English word is cognate with Italian manipulo (“scarf worn as vestment”) (obsolete), manipolo (“handful; troop of soldiers; scarf worn as vestment”). Sense 2 (“part of a priest’s vestments”) is probably from the fact that the item was originally carried in the hand. It may originate from a handkerchief or napkin wor

Why this word is great

MANIPLE — [Noun] A tactical unit of the Roman legion or a liturgical band worn on the arm by Christian clergy. From Latin manipulus ("bundle, handful; troop of soldiers"), from manus ("hand") + the weakened root of pleō ("to fill"). Unlike the rigid "phalanx" (a monolithic block of spears) or the "stole" (a neck-worn vestment signaling authority), the maniple is defined by its modularity: a handful of men who could pivot like fingers closing into a fist, or a strip of embroidered silk fluttering like a muted banner above the wrist. It is the rustle of scaled armor as centuries redeploy, the whisper of linen against chalice during Mass, and the way both war and worship reduce grand designs to what one hand can hold—and what it must let go.

noun

A division of the Roman army numbering 120 (or sometimes 60) soldiers exclusive of officers; (generally, obsolete) any small body of soldiers.“[T]hey divided the Haſtati, Principes, and Triaris, each of them into 10 companies, making of thoſe three ſorts of ſouldiers 30 ſmall regiments, which they called Manipuli: And again, they ſubdivided each maniple into two equall parts, and called them Ordines, which was the leaſt company in a legion, and according to the rate ſet down by Polybius, contained 60 ſouldiers. […] By this therefore it m”
In Western Christianity, an ornamental band or scarf worn upon the left arm as a part of the vestments of a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, and sometimes the Church of England.“[T]hey, as men thinking baſelie of ſuch ſimple dealing, adde a great deale more to making of their prieſts: they muſt haue oyle, candels, baſens, tovvels, amices, albes, ſtoals, gyrdles, maniples, miters, bookes, croſſes, linnen, bandes, chalices, patens, ſinging cakes, vvine and vvater, flovver, and ſuch other thinges, trifled and toyed with all, […]”
A hand; a fist.“His poem, however, is meetly enough entituled—Christ Crucified! But the Rev. William Ellis Wall is worse than [Pontius] Pilate. That "wretch," as this miserable calls the Roman governor, was careful to wash his hands of all guilt in the transaction; but the Rev. William Ellis Wall holds forth triumphantly his two unhallowed and incarnadine maniples of reeking digits, boasting of the infamous achie”
A handful.“[K]novving you a ſerious Student in the higheſt arcana’s of Nature; and vvith much excuſe vve bring theſe lovv delights, and poor maniples to your Treaſure.”