Manxadj.n.

Brit.

/maŋks/, U.S.

/mæŋks/

Forms: 1500s Maniske, 1500s Manske, 1600s Mancks, 1600s Manques, 1600s– Manks, 1800s Mankes, 1800s Mankish, 1800s– Manx; Scottish 1500s–1600s Mans, 1800s– Manx. Plural 1600s–1800s Manks, 1800s– Manx, 1800s– Manxes.

Origin: Probably a borrowing from early Scandinavian.

Etymology: Probably the reflex of a borrowing of an early Scandinavian adjective with the sense ‘Manx’ (compare Icelandic manskur , Norwegian mansk , Swedish mansk ) < the base of Old Icelandic Man- (nominative Mǫn ) Isle of Man + the base of Old Icelandic -sk -ish suffix¹. Old Icelandic Mǫn is < a Goidelic place name represented by Manx Ellan Vannin Isle of Man, Early Irish Inis Manann Isle of Man, Manu (Isle of) Man, Middle Welsh Manau (Isle of) Man, probably assimilated in form to Old Icelandic mǫn mane n.¹ (compare Old Icelandic Mǫn used of the Danish island Møn , a word with a distinct etymology). Compare also earlier versions of the same place name recorded in classical languages: classical Latin Monapia Isle of Man (in Pliny; A. L. F. Rivet and C. Smith Place-names Rom. Britain (1979) 410–1 emend this form to Manavia ), Hellenistic Greek Μονάιδα (Isle of) Man (in Ptolemy). The Goidelic words are cognate with Welsh Môn Anglesey, classical Latin Mona Anglesey, and mount n.¹In the early Scots form Mans probably with suffix substitution (see -ish suffix¹). Forms in /ks/, which have been standard since the 17th cent., are by metathesis from /sk/: compare Swedish Manxfolket the Manx people. The rare form Mankish is probably remodelled after Scottish beside Scots. Attested as a surname in the 13th cent. in the Dublin Guild Merchant Roll, compare Gilebertus le Manske (1253–4), Johannes le Manske de Russyn (1262–3), though it is unclear whether these are examples of the Middle English or the Scandinavian word.

A. adj.

Of or relating to the Isle of Man, its inhabitants, language, etc.Recorded earliest in the compound Manxman (see Manxman n.).

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the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Europe > British Isles > England > [adjective] > Isle of Man

Manx1516

the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Europe > British nation > English nation > [adjective] > of English islands

Manx1516

Scillonian1819

1516–17 in R. C. Reid Wigtownshire Charters (1960) 142 To Inglismen, Irlandmen and Mansmen.

a1563 in J. A. Twemlow Liverpool Town Bks. (1918) I. 226 This yere mayster mayre bought a certen numbre of strykes of Manske barlie of mayster Henrie Stanley.

1572 Act 14 Eliz. c. 5 §34 Yf any suche Maniske or Iryshe Vacabounde or Beggar ben alredy or shall at any tyme hereafter be set on Land in any parte of England or of Wales.

1600 Kirkcudbright Town Council Rec. (1939) I. 380 To paye to Johnne McCuffie boitman [£4/3/4] for tua Mans bolls corne he ressauit fra him in Ile of Man.

1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 67 Scaliger never heard of the Manks language, spoken by ours of the Ile of Man.

1697 J. Gale Let. 9 May in D. R. Hainsworth Corr. J. Lowther (1983) 385 Yesterday a Manx fishing boat arrived.

1765 Ann. Reg. 61 Books of devotion in the Manks tongue.

1824 R. Heber Jrnl. 1 Aug. in Narr. Journey Upper Provinces India (1828) I. ix. 179 The large pulwars with sails..reminded me of the Manks jagger-boats.

1860 All Year Round 11 Aug. 420 I believe a Manx sermon is now seldom heard.

1906 Nature 14 June 152/1 Apart from the interest to those who study the Manks antiquities.

1926 Peel City Guardian 26 June 2/2 The Mayor of Douglas intends to do what he can..to promote a big home-coming of Manx people and their descendants for June of next year.

1992 Independent 14 Sept. 2/2 The last indigenous Manx Gaelic speaker died about 20 years ago and there were fears that the language had died forever.

B. n.

1. The Celtic language of the Isle of Man; Manx Gaelic.Manx is no longer learnt as a first language but is still in use for ceremonial purposes.

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the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [noun] > Indo-European > Celtic > Goidelic > Irish > Manx

Manx1656

Gaelic1810

1656 J. Chaloner Short Treat. Isle of Man in Publ. Manx Soc. (1864) X. ii. 9 Doctor Philips..undertook that most laborious..but most useful Work, of the Translation of the Bible into Manks.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Wales 11 Seven tongues being used in his [sc. the King's] Territories, viz. 1. English..7. Manks, in the Isle of Man.

a1687 W. Petty Polit. Anat. Ireland (1691) 106 The Language of Ireland is like that of the North of Scotland, in many things like the Welch and Manques.

1702 W. Sacheverell Acct. Isle of Man 8 In the Northern part of the Island they speak a deeper Manks, as they call it, than in the South.

1770 T. Percy tr. P. H. Mallet Northern Antiq. I. p. xxxi (heading) Manks, or Language of the Isle of Man.

1820 E. Everett in N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 366 Still more pernicious [to the purity of the language]..than the prevalence of the Cornish, Welsh, Erse, Mankish, or Gaelic.

1835 A. Cregeen Dict. Manks Lang. Pref. The Manks is now seldom spoken or written in its original purity.

1859 W. Gill Kelly's Manks Gram. Introd. 9 In the schools throughout the Island the Manx has ceased to be taught.

1894 H. Caine Manxman 315 The Coroner of the premier sheading began to recite the same titles in Manx.

1913 J. M. Jones Welsh Gram. 1 Keltic: (a) the Q division, consisting of dialects in Gaul and Spain, and the Goidelic group, comprising Irish, Scotch Gaelic and Manx.

1928 Observer 8 Apr. 14/3 There is no one living..speaking only Manx and no English. Ten years before that the monolinguists had dwindled to under half a dozen.

1970 B. M. H. Strang Hist. Eng. ix. 402 One IE language (Manx) has become extinct since the Second World War.

1991 Eng. World-wide 12 319 The fact that Manx died only fairly recently—with its last native speaker in 1974—means that many surviving written texts and recordings leave ample room (and need) for linguistic analysis.

2. A native or inhabitant of the Isle of Man.

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the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Europe > British nation > English nation > [noun] > native or inhabitant of England > islands

Manxman1516

Scillonian1651

Manx1688

Jerseyman1825

Sarkese1845

Manxwoman1974

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 233/1 The Manks or Manings [are] a people that inhabit the Isle of Man.

a1770 T. Chatterton Compl. Wks. (1971) I. 24 For his Life to John Rumsee he renderd his thanks, Descended from Godred the King of the Manks.

1809 Acct. Isle of Man 74 The Manks pay a decent and feeling regard to the memory of their deceased friends.

1899 J. MacTaggart Mackinnon & Bards 68 The Englishman, the Welsh, the Manx, The artless Irishman, the Scot.

1996 Re: Possible Manx Newsgroup in soc.culture.celtic (Usenet newsgroup) 4 Oct. It seems to me that many Manx are looking for a forum to discuss their culture and explore a wide range of aspects of what it means to be Manx.

3. Short for Manx cat n. at Compounds.

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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Felidae (feline) > felis domesticus (cat) > [noun] > miscellaneous breeds of > Manx

rumpy1836

Manx cat1854

Manx1889

1889 Daily News 23 Oct. 7/1 A solitary couple of Manxes [at a cat-show].

1900 Daily News 10 Jan. 6/5 A finer assembly of Blues, Siamese, Manx, and Long-haired neuters..it would be difficult to secure.

1972 M. Babson Murder on Show ii. 20 This is Precious Black Jade, my Manx. Precious has won five County Cat Shows.

Compounds

Manx cat n. a breed of domestic cat having no tail or an extremely short one, originating on the Isle of Man; a cat of this breed.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Felidae (feline) > felis domesticus (cat) > [noun] > miscellaneous breeds of > Manx

rumpy1836

Manx cat1854

Manx1889

1854 Notes & Queries 20 May 479/2 An American clergyman travelling in Europe..mentioned having seen a tailless cat in Scotland, called a Manx cat, from having come from the Isle of Man.

1859 J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. (new ed.) I. 202 The Manx Cat..possessing hardly a vestige of a tail.

1958 G. Bellairs Corpse at Carnival i. 9 A little Manx cat..chasing a piece of toffee-paper.

1998 Chicago Tribune 11 Jan. xv 4/5 Velcro, our Manx cat, panics whenever we leave her alone, especially if I go out.

Manx codlin n. a variety of cooking apple.

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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular types of fruit > [noun] > apple > other apples

Bretonc1390

stur1483

marigold apple1577

fritter1591

Margaret1597

critling1611

cat's-head1617

rosiar1620

rose apple1626

snouting1651

roundling1655

mayflower1664

red greening1664

seaming1664

sheep's snout1664

spicing apple1664

violet-apple1664

pomme d'api1676

rathe-ripe1677

rose1678

lady's finger1688

stone apple1736

sops-in-wine1764

stone pippin1769

Manx codlin1818

Rymer1820

Roxbury russet1826

souring1832

genet1833

tompot1836

Wagener1848

flesh and blood1853

pick-thong1871

virgin1886

Jon1931

Idared1942

1818 in Trans. Hort. Soc. London (1826) 3 320 Manx Codlin.

1860 R. Hogg Fruit Man. 16 Manks codlin... One of the best kitchen apples. September to November.

1889 A. T. Pask Eyes of Thames 146 Apple standards laden with the light silky-skinned Manx codlins, sometimes broken by the rosy-red of an intruding ‘rogue’ sapling.

Manx half-penny n. now historical a Manx coin of half the value of a Manx penny (see Manx penny n.).

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1795 J. O'Keeffe Life's Vagaries ii. ii. 32 He didn't give me a Manx rap half-penny.

1812 in Catal. Prints: Polit. & Personal Satires (Brit. Mus.) (1949) IX. 115 My Services a Manks Half-penny.

1853 Notes & Queries 5 Mar. 239/2 It [sc. ‘stabit quocunque jeceris’] was the legend round the common Manx halfpenny, encircling the three legs of man on its reverse.

Manx loaghtan n. (also Manx loghtan) [ < A. + loaghtan adj. and n.] a breed of small sheep originating in the Isle of Man, characterized by a greyish-brown fleece and the presence of one, two, or three pairs of horns in both rams and ewes; a sheep of this breed; = loaghtan n.

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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > genus Ovus > [noun] > Ovus Aries (domestic sheep) > specific breeds or members of

mug1596

down1721

Shropshire1768

Norfolk sheep1778

Ryeland1786

Southdown1786

Persian1794

Leicester1798

Southdowner1799

Ryeland1802

loaghtan1812

Manx loaghtan1812

herdwick1837

Wallachian1837

Norfolk1851

Teeswater1861

bluefaced Leicester1864

Rough Fell1871

Border Leicester1873

Mexican1878

Cheviot1883

fat-tail1888

pampas1892

pampas sheep1895

turbary1908

karakul1913

East Friesian1949

Texel1949

Norfolk Horn1961

Colbred1962

1812 T. Quayle Gen. View Agric. Isle of Man xiv. 112 Among the Norfolk sheep, individuals occasionally appeared of a rusty brown color; but less uniform in hue than the Manks laughton... In the Manks language participle passive plural ‘Burnt’ is expressed by Loshtyn. Of this word, possibly, the term, Laughton, is a corruption.

1912 R. Lydekker Sheep iv. 61 The Manx, or typical, loaghtans run somewhat larger than the Soa breed, and display a marked tendency to the development of extra horns in the rams.

1977 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts 125 701 (caption) A Manx Loghtan ram representing the rarest of the four-horned breeds.

1998 Holiday UK Apr. 53/3 The birds share the islet with the unique four-horned Manx Loaghtan sheep during the summer months.

Manx penny n. now historical a copper coin issued on the Isle of Man variously between 1709 and 1839 and stamped with the Manx emblem of a triskelion of three legs, equivalent in value to about ¹/ ₁₄ of the English shilling (figurative in quot. a1881).

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society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > English coins > [noun] > penny > local varieties of

penny1394

Manx penny1868

1868 G. M. Sproat Scenes Stud. Savage Life 14 They [sc. the lakes on Vancouver Island] are most irregular in shape..extending between mountains for ten or fifteen miles in different directions like the legs on a Manx penny.

a1881 T. Carlyle in Harper's Mag. (1883) Nov. 877/1 [He] hadn't the heart to..watch a woman..making a Manx penny of herself.

1898 G. B. Rawlings Brit. Coinage 192 Queen Victoria coined a Manx penny, halfpenny, and farthing, in 1839 only... This is the last coinage for the Isle of Man.

Manx puffin n. †(a) = Manx shearwater n. (obsolete); (b) humorous a native of the Isle of Man.

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the world > animals > birds > order Procellariiformes > [noun] > member of family Procellariidae (petrel) > member of genus Puffinus (shearwater) > puffinus anglorum (Manx shearwater)

puffin1337

pilwater1603

lyre1654

shearwaterc1671

scrabe1676

Manx puffin1678

mackerel cock1772

Manx shearwater1835

scraber1852

1678 J. Ray tr. F. Willughby Ornithol. Index Puffin 325. Manks Puffin 333.

1771 J. Banks Jrnl. 8 July (1963) II. 275 Went in boat and shot Fulmar and Manks Puffin.

1790 G. White Jrnl. 19 Sept. (1970) xxiii. 367 The bird proved to be the ‘Manks’ puffin.

1934 W. W. Gill Manx Dial. ii. 84 He's noan English—he's a Manx puffin.

Manx shearwater n. a shearwater of the northern hemisphere, Puffinus puffinus, which has a dark back and nests on remote islands in north-east Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Hawaiian waters.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > order Procellariiformes > [noun] > member of family Procellariidae (petrel) > member of genus Puffinus (shearwater) > puffinus anglorum (Manx shearwater)

puffin1337

pilwater1603

lyre1654

shearwaterc1671

scrabe1676

Manx puffin1678

mackerel cock1772

Manx shearwater1835

scraber1852

1835 L. Jenyns Man. Brit. Vertebr. Animals 285 Procellaria Anglorum, Temm. (Manks Shearwater).

1884 Yarrell's Brit. Birds IV. 21 The Manx Shearwater is the commonest species of the genus in the British seas... It owes its trivial name to Willughby, who speaks of it as the Puffin of the Isle of Man.

1971 Country Life 11 Mar. 524/2 Although there are other seabirds on the precipices of Hoy, with the exception of a small colony of Manx shearwaters, they are all to be found in more easily observed colonies.

1991 Green Mag. Feb. 60/1 Dead seabirds appeared on the beach, including guillemots, a Manx Sheerwater, an albatross, and a gannet.

Manx slates n. Geology slaty rocks constituting an early Ordovician formation that is found widely in the Isle of Man.

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1895 G. W. Lamplugh in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 51 563 Among the Skiddaw Slates of the Isle of Man there occur in some localities..a curious conglomerate rock.]

1895 G. W. Lamplugh in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 51 580 The lithological character of the Manx slates as a whole calles for great caution in dealing with this matter.

1969 G. M. Bennison & A. E. Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles iv. 85 The Manx Slates have been affected by polyphase folding and low-grade metamorphism.

1992 New Scientist 5 Dec. 18/1 Rushton and Tunnicliff found many fossilised skeletons of grapholites [sic]. The species indicate that the Manx slates were laid down in the early Ordovician period.

Manxwoman n. a female native or inhabitant of the Isle of Man.

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