manciple

American  

[man-suh-puhl] / ˈmæn sə pəl /

noun

1. an officer or steward of a monastery, college, etc., authorized to purchase provisions.

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manciple British  

/ ˈmænsɪpəl /

noun

1. a steward who buys provisions, esp in a college, Inn of Court, or monastery

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Etymology

Origin of manciple

1150–1200 in sense “slave”; Middle English < Middle French manciple, variant of mancipe < Medieval Latin mancipium, Latin: a possession, slave, originally, ownership, equivalent to mancip-, stem of manceps contractor, agent ( man ( us ) hand + -cep-, combining form of capere to take ( concept ) + -s nominative singular ending) + -ium -ium

Example Sentences

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses the Manciple’s Tale to preach the dangers of “jangling,” a term that encompassed most pointless chatter:

From Slate

A gentil Manciple was there of the Temple, Of whom achatours mighten take ensemple, For to ben wise in bying of vitaille.

From Project Gutenberg

Manciple, man′si-pl, n. a steward: a purveyor, particularly of a college or an inn of court.

From Project Gutenberg

A doctor of physic, a cook, a poor parson, a ploughman, a reeve, or estate agent, a manciple, and two disgraceful characters—a summoner and a pardoner—make up the total of the company.

From Project Gutenberg

You will have to hunt very diligently through his description of the Knight, the Squire, the Yeoman, the Prioress, the Monk, the Merchant, the Sergeant of the Law, the Franklin, the Miller, the Manciple, and the rest of his jovial company, in order to find anything approaching the feminine note.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• administrator
• attendant
• curator
• waiter