Other forms: manacles
A manacle is a metal ring locked round the wrist. In manacles, strike off the manacles, iron manacles.
It is nearly always plural, and it is the wrist version of a fetter, which goes on the ankle. The Latin behind it is the word for a hand, which is where manual and manacle both come from.
1nounmanacleA metal ring locked round the wrist.
“The prisoner's wrists were locked in iron manacles.”
manacle is a restraint.
Latin manicula is a diminutive of manus, a hand.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)meh₂- — to beckon, signal
Latin
manicula — handle of a plough; manacle
Old French
manicle — armlet; gauntlet; (in plural) manacles
Middle French
manicle
Anglo-Norman
manicle
Middle English
manacle
English, today
manacle
Built from
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). a doublet of manicle and manicule. The verb is probably derived from the noun, although according to the Oxford English Dictionary it is attested slightly earlier.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA