Editing Le Blanc-Mesnil (section)

==Name==
The name Le Blanc-Mesnil was recorded for the first time in the 11th century as {{lang|fr|Mansionile Blaun}}. This name is a compound of [[Medieval Latin]] {{lang|la|Mansionile}}, meaning 'little houses', from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|[[mansio]]}} ([[Accusative case|accusative]] {{lang|la|mansionem}}), and of Germanic ([[Old Frankish language|Old Frankish]]) {{lang|frk|blanch}}, {{lang|frk|blaun}}, meaning 'glossy, shining, white', which gave [[French language|French]] {{lang|fr|blanc}} ('white') and [[English language|English]] ''blank''.

The name is interpreted by some as a reference to the houses of Le Blanc-Mesnil which were whitened due to the flour dust coming from the windmills located there in ancient times. One researcher, however, thinks that {{lang|fr|blanc}} had also the meaning of 'free' in [[Old French]], and so the name would mean 'free mesnil, free village', perhaps because the villagers had been freed from [[serfdom]]. None of these interpretations is certain.