manefaire

Meanings

1. Protective armor for a horse's neck; a crinet or criniere.

Etymology

From Middle English mayndefer, maynfer, and maynefere, attested in lists of armor used by men and their horses. In the 17- and 1800s, Francis Grose, Samuel Rush Meyrick and other antiquarians took the term to denote a horse's neck armor, connecting it to mane; Harold Dillon, 17th Viscount Dillon and Charles John ffoulkes have argued that this is an error and that term referred to a kind of gauntlet, from French main de fer (literally “hand of iron”), now often spelled manifer.