mangonel

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: mangonels

A mangonel is a medieval engine for hurling stones. Load the mangonel.

It worked by torsion in a twisted rope rather than by a counterweight like a trebuchet. A mangonel threw further but far less accurately, and was often used to throw fire.

Definitions of mangonel

1nounmangonelA medieval engine for hurling stones.C2
“The mangonel could clear the wall but never hit the same spot twice.”

mangonel is a weapon.

Where it comes from

Old French mangonel comes through Latin from Greek manganon, an engine of war.

Ancient Greek
μάγγανον
Latin
manganellus
Old French
mangonel
English, today
mangonel

From Old French mangonel, from Latin manganellus, manganum, from Ancient Greek μάγγανον.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

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mangonel in the wild

In the 5th century BC the mangonel appeared in ancient China, a type of traction trebuchet and catapult.
Catapult
The first is the traction trebuchet, or mangonel, which uses manpower to swing the arm.
Trebuchet
Although the mangonel required more men to function, it was also less complex and faster to reload than the torsion-powered onager which it replaced in early Medieval Europe.
Mangonel
A common misconception about the mangonel is that it was a torsion siege engine.
Mangonel
The onager is often confused with the later mangonel, a "traction trebuchet" that replaced torsion powered siege engines in the 6th century AD.
Onager (weapon)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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