MANTLE  , a

long flowing cloak without sleeves, worn by either sex . Particularly applied to the long robe worn over the armour by the men-at-arms of the middle ages, the name is still given to the robes of state of kings, peers, and the members of an order of knights . Thus the " electoral mantle " was a robe of office worn by the imperial electors, and the Teutonic knights were known as the orde alborum mantellorum from their white mantles . As an article of women's dress a mantle now means a loose cloak or cape, of any length, and made of silk, velvet, or other rich material . The word is derived from the Latin mantellum or mantelum, a cloak, and is probably the same as, or another form of, mantelium or mantele, a table-napkin or table-cloth, from manes, hand, and tela, a cloth . A late Latin mantum, from which several Romance languages have taken words (cf . Ital. manta, and Fr. mante), must, as the . New English Dictionary points out, be a " back-formation," and this will explain the diminutive form of the Spanish mantilla . From the old French mantel came the English compounds ' " mantel-piece," " mantel-shelf," for the stone or wood beam which serves as a support for the structure above a fire-place, together with the whole framework, whether of wood, stone, &c., that acts as an ornament of 'the same (see CHIMNEYPIECE) . The modern French form manteau is used in English chiefly as a dressmaker's term for a woman's mantle . " Mantua," much used in the 18th century for a similar garment, is probably a corruption of manteau, due to silk or other materials coming from the Italian town of that name, and known by the trade name of " mantuas." The Spanish mantilla is a covering for the head and shoulders of white or black lace or other material, the characteristic head-dress of women in• southern and central Spain . It is occasionally seen in the other parts of Spain and Spanish countries, and also in Portugal .

"Mantle " is used in many transferred senses, all with the meaning of " covering," as in

zoology, for an enclosing sac or integument; thus it is applied to the tunic " or layer of connective-tissue forming the body-wall of ascidians enclosing muscle-fibres, blood-sinuses and nerves (see TUNICATA) . The term is also used for a meshed cap of refractory oxides 'employed in systems of incandescent lighting (see LIGHTING) . The verb is used for the creaming or frothing of liquids and of the suffusing of the skin with blood . In heraldry " mantling," also known as " panache," " lambrequin " or " contoise, is an ornamental appendage to an escutcheon, of flowing drapery, forming a background (see HERALDRY) .