Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
Protective armor for a horse's neck; a crinet or criniere.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: possibly erroneous
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From Middle English mayndefer, maynfer, and maynefere, attested in lists of armor used by men and their horses. In the 17- and 1800s, Francis Grose, Samuel Rush Meyrick and other antiquarians took the term to denote a horse's neck armor, connecting it to mane; Harold Dillon, 17th Viscount Dillon and Charles John ffoulkes have argued that this is an error and that term referred to a kind of gauntlet, from French main de fer (literally “hand of iron”), now often spelled manifer.
