Meaning of mandilion | Babel Free

Definitions

A loose outer garment resembling a cassock or coat, often sleeveless, worn by soldiers over armour or by menservants as a type of overcoat.

Examples

“You see likewise, that the lion, being the king of beasts; the horse, being the lustiest creature; the unicorn, whose horn is worth half a city; all these go with no more clothes on their backs, than what nature hath bestowed upon them: but your baboons, and your jackanapes, being the scum and rascality of all the hedge-creepers, they go in jerkins and mandilions.”

“[T]hen followed the younger men of their train, and for the moſt apparelled in ſatin doublets, ſilk hats, chains of gold about their bodies, and ſilk hoſe, with a bow and four ſhafts, and every one had his Page going before him in red mandilions, as before mentioned, and caps accordingly ſuitable, […] and every one of theſe Pages had upon their mandilions theſe ſentences written both before and behind; / Honeſt labour procureth health, / By honeſt labour men come to wealth.”

“MANDILION, (Mandille, Fr.) the soldier's coat is so called by the Italians. It does not, however, bear that meaning either amongst us or among the French; Mandilion and Mandille signifying a footman's great coat.”

“Thus put he on his arming truss, fair shoes upon his feet, / About him a mandilion, that did with buttons meet, / Of purple, large and full of folds, curl'd with a warmful nap, / A garment that 'gainst cold in nights did soldiers use to wrap; […]”

“Mandilion A loose coat or jacket reaching to the hips and worn with the sleeves hanging free. Designs in the later Middle Ages resembled a tabard […] in being put on over the head and could be sleeveless; they were chiefly worn by soldiers and ordinary people. In the second half of the sixteenth century the mandilion was more a fashionable garment, when it was buttoned at the neck, its sleeves hanging behind the arm. Like the Spanish capes of the day it could be turned partly askew, in which case one sleeve hung down in front and the other down the back. This was then referred to as wearing it Colley-Westonward, meaning awry.”

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