From Latin 'manualis' (of the hand), from 'manus' (hand) — connecting to 'manuscript,' 'manipulate,' and 'emancipate.'
Of or done with the hands; a book of instructions or a handbook; a keyboard played with the hands (as on an organ).
From Old French 'manuel,' from Latin 'manuālis' (of or belonging to the hand, that can be held in the hand), from 'manus' (hand), from Proto-Indo-European *man- (hand) or *meh₂- (hand). The PIE root *man- produced one of the most extensive semantic clusters in Latin: 'manus' (hand) generated 'maniple' (a handful — originally a military unit identified by a handful of hay on a pole), 'manuscript' (handwritten — from 'manus' + 'scribere'), 'manufacture' (to make by hand — now ironic since it denotes industrial production), 'manipulate' (to handle, to work by hand), 'manacle' (a hand-fetter), 'manoeuvre' (a work by hand — from 'manu' + 'operāre'), 'mandate' (a hand-giving, a commission), 'emancipate' (to release from the hand — to free from legal control), and 'command' (to give into the hand, to entrust). The noun sense of 'manual' — an instruction
The phrase 'manual labor' is etymologically redundant in an interesting way: 'labor' comes from Latin 'labor' (toil, exertion), while 'manual' specifies 'with the hands.' But the redundancy reveals a cultural assumption — that real work is hand-work, and that distinguishing hand-work from other kinds requires a special adjective.
Words closest in meaning, ranked by similarity