Mangle

Mangle. (1) A machine for pressing and smoothing clothes after washing (see Laundry). The word was adopted from the Dutch; mangel-stok means a rolling pin, and linnen mangelen, to press linen by rolling; similarly in O. Ital. mangano meant, according to Florio, "a presse to press buckrom," &c. The origin of the word is to be found in the medieval Latin name, manganum, mangonus or mangana, for an engine of war, the "mangonel," for hurling stones and other missiles (see Catapult). The Latin word was adapted from the Greek Al yyavov, a trick or device, cognate with µ17Xavrt, a machine. (2) To cut in pieces, to damage or disfigure; to mutilate. This word is of obscure origin. According to the New English Dictionary it presents an Anglo-French mahangler, a form of mahaigner from which the English "maim" is derived, cf. the old form "mayhem," surviving in legal phraseology. Skeat connects the word with the Latin mancus, maimed, with which "maim" is not cognate.