mantle

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*menH-“tread, press together; crumble”
2. Proto-Celtic · derived from*mantos
3. Gaulish · derived from*mantos
4. Latin · derived frommantellum“covering, cloak”
5. Anglo-Norman · derived frommantel
6. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*mantel
7. Old English · inherited frommæntel
8. Middle English · inherited frommantel
9. English todaymantle

From Middle English mantel, from Old English mæntel, mentel (“sleeveless cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *mantel; later reinforced by Anglo-Norman mantel, both from Latin mantellum (“covering, cloak”) (French manteau), diminutive of mantum (Spanish manto), probably from Gaulish *mantos, *mantalos (“trodden road”), from Proto-Celtic *mantos, *mantlos, from Proto-Indo-European *menH- (“tread, press together; crumble”). Compare Icelandic möttull. Doublet of manteau.

First known use, by meaning

• from 9th c. A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops.
• from 9th c. Anything that covers or conceals something else; a cloak.
• from 15th c. The body wall of a mollusc, from which the shell is secreted.
• from 19th c. A gauzy fabric impregnated with metal nitrates, used in some kinds of gas and oil lamps and lanterns, which forms a rigid but fragile mesh of metal oxides when heated during initial use and then produces white light from the heat of the flame below it. (So called because it is hung above the lamp's flame like a mantel.)
• from 19th c. The cerebral cortex.
• from 20th c. The layer between Earth's core and crust.
• from 20th c. Any similar layer in an exoplanet.