When I was growing up in southern Ontario, I remember watching with fascination as my mother did laundry in the basement. There were two metal sinks on stands: one for washing and one for rinsing. After the clothes soaked for a bit and were swished around with a large wooden stick they were fed through a wringer and put into the rinse sink. Once rinsed they were put through the rollers again, which squished out most of the water by flattening the clothes, and then they were taken outside to hang on the wash line to dry. Little did I know that the squishing rollers machine was actually a mangle. We always called it a wringer washer.
Mangles date from the late 1600s. In England a mangle is a mechanical laundry aid consisting of two cylinders in a sturdy frame, powered by a hand crank or by electricity, between which wet laundry is squeezed to remove excess moisture and pressed. In the United States mangles are a large commercial machine for ironing laundry and other fabrics by passing damp items between heated rollers.
The noun mangle comes from the Dutch word mangel, which was used for a machine with rollers for squeezing water out of wet clothes.
You are probably more familiar with the verb form of the word mangle, which implies being injured with deep disfiguring wounds by cutting, tearing, or crushing. Swimmers have been known to be mangled in shark attacks. This usage has been around since the 1400s. To mangle comes from the Anglo-French mahaignier meaning to maim, a totally different path from the noun version of mangle.
Maim, mutilate, and mangle all mean to injure so severely as to cause lasting damage.
Maim implies the loss or injury of a body part. Insurance coverage often mentions maiming in policies.
Mutilate suggests the cutting off or removal of an essential part of a person or thing thereby impairing its completeness, beauty, or function. The apple tree was mutilated by inept pruning.
Mangle infers a tearing or crushing that leaves deep wounds. The soldier’s leg was mangled by the shrapnel from the bomb.
As years went by mangle followed a course similar to the meaning of the word butcher in English. Both words moved from applying a violent damaging action to a figurative usage. In this case mangle means to spoil or make incoherent through ineptitude. When developing the book into a movie script the writers mangled the plot beyond recognition.
When looking at mangle in this manner, synonyms include bobble, botch, bungle, flub, foozle, goof up, and louse up.
Bobble means to grope for or handle something clumsily or aimlessly. The first baseman bobbled the catch, so the runner was safe.
Botch suggests putting together in a makeshift way. The order from the online website was botched and only half the items were shipped.
Bungle denotes acting or working ineptly and awkwardly. The detective bungled the investigation the first time she tried to do it by herself.
Flub means to make a mess of something. The young actor flubbed the lines on the first night of the production.
Foozle infers managing or playing gracelessly. On the last day of the golf tournament the leader foozled the round and lost his large lead.
Goof up suggests making a usually foolish or careless mistake. She was so tired when she worked on the final copy of the paper that she goofed up the assignment.
Louse up means to make a jumble of things. They loused up the wallpapering job in the bedroom and the seams were very evident.
AND pay attention that you do not mangle any mangels when amidst a herd of cattle. A mangel is a large coarse yellow to reddish-orange beet grown chiefly as food for bovines. If you mangle the mangels it might be the last botched up thing you do.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to [email protected]. Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
