Mandeville

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The purported author of a popular fourteenth-century travel account of the East ; a Dutch-born writer and satirist who argued that private vices can produce public benefits
2. A figure traditionally credited with a famous medieval book of travels to distant lands ; an eighteenth-century thinker whose satirical poem claimed private vice could serve the public good
3. A name attached to a celebrated fourteenth-century travelogue about the Orient ; a writer of the early 1700s famed for a satire on greed, vanity and social order

Etymology: Mandeville is a name, and the word's story begins with a book. Around 1357 to 1360, a text appeared in French, and later in Latin and English, claiming to be the travel account of a knight named John Mandeville, who supposedly journeyed from England to the Holy Land, Egypt, India, and beyond. The narrator's identity was almost certainly invented: no such traveler has been traced, and the book is a compilation of older sources, including Odoric of Pordenone and Jean de Bourgogne's writings, mixed with fantastical inventions. Its wonders, such as headless men with faces on their chests and monstrous races, made it wildly popular for centuries. Because the author was anonymous and the claims were so sweeping, "Mandeville" became a byword for an unreliable traveler, and the name was eventually applied to the figure himself. The book's own claims of having seen far-off lands gave the name its lasting association with tall tales and armchair exploration. Its manuscripts circulated widely, and it was printed in English as early as the 1480s, which helped fix the name in the language.