Mandil
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A turban; cloth used to make a turban. historical
"His turban, or mandil [mandīl], was of finest white silk interwoven with gold, bestudded with pearl[s] and carbuncles; [...]"
Example
More examples"His turban, or mandil [mandīl], was of finest white silk interwoven with gold, bestudded with pearl[s] and carbuncles; [...]"
Etymology
From Arabic مَنْدِيل (mandīl, “sash; turban cloth; handkerchief”), already borrowed before Islam from Byzantine Greek μανδίλιον (mandílion), μαντίλιον (mantílion), μανδήλη (mandḗlē, “cloth; hand towel; handkerchief; tablecloth”) (the last word found in an Egyptian papyrus dated to 481 AD), from Latin mantēlium, mantēle (“hand towel, napkin”), probably from manus (“hand”) + tergere (“to rub, wipe, wipe off; to clean”). Compare French mendil (“turban, turban cloth”) (1659; translating German Mendil from a 1656 source).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.