Crossword clues for mangonel
mangonel
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mangonel \Man"go*nel\, n. [OF. mangonel, LL. manganellus, manganum, fr. Gr. ? See Mangle, n.] A military engine formerly used for throwing stones and javelins.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"military engine for hurling stones," mid-13c., from Old French mangonel "catapult, war engine for throwing stones, etc." (Modern French mangonneau), diminutive of Medieval Latin mangonum, from Vulgar Latin *manganum "machine," from Greek manganon "any means of tricking or bewitching," from PIE *mang- "to embellish, dress, trim" (cognates: Old Prussian manga "whore," Middle Irish meng "craft, deception"). Attested from c.1200 in Anglo-Latin.
Wiktionary
n. A military engine formerly used for throwing stones and burning objects.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A mangonel was a type of catapult or siege engine used in the medieval period to throw projectiles at a castle's walls. A mangonel had poorer accuracy than a trebuchet (which was introduced later, shortly before the discovery and widespread usage of gunpowder). The mangonel threw projectiles on a lower trajectory and at a higher velocity than the trebuchet, with the intention of destroying walls, rather than hurling projectiles over them. It was more suited to field battles.
Mangonel is derived from the Greek mágganon, meaning "engine of war", but mangonel may also be indirectly referring to the mangon, a French hard stone found in the south of France. It may have been a name for counterweight artillery (trebuchets), possibly either a men-assisted fixed-counterweight type, or one with a particular type of frame. The Arabic term manajaniq comes from the same word, and applies to various kinds of trebuchet. It is also possible that it referred to more than one kind of engine, in different times or places, or was a general term.
Usage examples of "mangonel".
Ballistae, mangonels and perriers could be effective against garrisons, but the trebuchet, which came into use in the eleventh century, was the first engine that could do significant structural damage to stone fortifications from a distance.
On a small island, little more than a hump of rock beside the harbor mouth stood a tumbledown tower with a mangonel on top and some armed men lounging about.
Still, even if the mangonel shafts missed, he might be trapped by the netting and fall to earth.
I hit the sliding remains of a mangonel, as did Rui, blacking out for a moment.
A stone from a mangonel, bouncing from the armored fighting castle at the bow, slammed through the deck and hull, opening the galleass to the sea as she came within a dozen lengths of the gates.
Of the half dozen siege towers that were built up north, three had been destroyed by the mangonels on the north wall.
There were a dozen or so mangonels em placed just beyond the range of Asturian arrows as I flew back to the city, and they were already hurling huge rocks at the walls.
They could hear now the shouts of the combatants without, the loud orders given by the leaders on the walls, the crack, as the stones hurled by the mangonels struck the walls, and the ring of steel as the arrows struck against steel cap and cuirass.
They were not unmolested in their advance, for, from the walls, mangonels and other machines hurled great stones down upon the wooden screens, succeeding sometimes, in spite of their thickness, in crashing through them, killing many of the men beneath.
Evidently it did not open on outer air, yet it was built as if to withstand the battering of mangonels and rams.
Prince Jelarkan had emptied half his treasury for arrows, bows, ballistae, mangonels and other weapons of slaughter.
Then he moved on to Acre, which he took, relieving four thousand Moslem captives, and so on to other towns, all of which fell before him, till at length he came to Ascalon, which he besieged in form, setting up his mangonels against its walls.
The mangonels hurled their stones unceasingly, the arrows flew in clouds so that none could stand upon the walls.
There were plenty of conventional weapons, if by that you meant giant bows, catapults and mangonels that hurled balls of Ephebian fire, which clung while it burned.
Ominous siege engines, mangonels, catapults, a ram and the framework for a belfrois were off to the rear of the battlefield.