mantelletta

English

WOTD – 26 July 2017

Etymology

Giuseppe Siri (1906–1989) when he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Genoa, Italy, in 1944, wearing a purple mantelletta. He was appointed a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XII in 1953.

Borrowed from Italian mantelletta, from mantello (“cloak, mantle”) + -etta (from -etto (diminutive suffix)), probably from Late Latin mantelletum (“a short, sleeveless cape or cloak; a mantlet”). Doublet of mantlet.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mantəˈlɛtə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌmæn(t)əˈlɛtə/, /-ɾə/
• Rhymes: -ɛtə
• Hyphenation: man‧tel‧let‧ta

Noun

mantelletta (plural mantellettas)

1. (Roman Catholicism) A sleeveless, knee-length vestment open at the front which is worn by Roman Catholic prelates.
   • 1850 August 31, “Historical Memoirs of Cardinal Pacca, Prime Minister to Pius VII. Written by Himself. Translated from the Italian, by Sir George Head. 2 vols. Longman & Co.”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, number 1192, London: Printed by James Holmes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane; published at the Office, 14 Wellington Street North, Strand, by J. Francis, →OCLC, page 921, column 2:

     We were without comestibles, and we had no garments except those we wore, not even a shirt, and the habits, such as they were, were most inconvenient for travelling; for the Pope [Pius VII] wore his mozzetta and stola, and I [Bartolomeo Pacca] the rocchetto and mozzetta, together with the mantelletta.

   • 1912, “The Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church”, in Herman Joseph Heuser, editor, The Ecclesiastical Review: A Monthly Publication for the Clergy, volume XLVI, Philadelphia, Pa.: American Ecclesiastical Review, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 145:

     In Rome the cardinals wear the mozzetta over the mantelletta, except in their titular churches, when it is worn immediately over the rochet.

   • 2015, Philipp Zitzlsperger, “A Change in Forms and the Migration of Bodies in Rome – From the Cardinal’s Tomb to the Cenotaph”, in Tarald Rasmussen, Jon Øygarden Flæten, editors, Preparing for Death, Remembering the Dead, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, →ISBN, page 84:

     In the presence of the Pope and within the Archbishopric of Rome, the cardinals and the bishops had to conceal the rochet beneath a so-called mantelletta, a knee-length coat, which was open at the front.

Related terms

• manteau
• mantle
• mantlet
• mantellone

Further reading

• mantelletta on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Italian

Etymology

From mantella +‎ -etta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /man.telˈlet.ta/
• Rhymes: -etta
• Hyphenation: man‧tel‧lét‧ta

Noun

mantelletta f (plural mantellette)

1. mantlet
2. mantelletta

Descendants

• → English: mantelletta

Further reading

• mantelletta in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana