mantuko

Hand-cloth. That is a towel, and the word tells you so.Mano is a hand, at rank 95. Tuko is a cloth, at rank 1,839. Put them together and you have the cloth for your hands. You knew both halves; you did not know you knew this word.

This is the second genuine compound in the band, after hejmlando, and it is worth savouring because so much of this chapter is false seams. Incidento looks assembled and is not. Artifiko looks assembled and is not. Mantuko looks assembled and is, all the way down, with no borrowed root anywhere in it.

The -tuko family is the real prize. Once the pattern is visible you get a whole cupboard of vocabulary for nothing:

Eight words, one root, no memorising. The learner of French has to take serviette, mouchoir, foulard, nappe and torchon one at a time and hope. This is the argument for the language in a single row of a table, and it is exactly the argument the piedfingro page makes about the body.

A note on precision. Strictly, mantuko is the towel for your hands and bantuko is the big one you dry yourself with after a bath. In practice mantuko is the everyday word and does duty for both unless the size matters. If you want the general word with no body part attached, viŝtuko - the wiping cloth - is the neutral option, though in a kitchen it will be read as a tea towel.