remand

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English remaunden,^[2][3][4] partly borrowed from Old French remaunder, the Anglo-Norman form, also remander,^[5][6] and partly borrowed from Late Latin remandō (“to send back word, repeat a command”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} formed from Latin re- (“back, again”) and mandō (“to consign, order, commit to one's charge”), the source of mandate.^[6][2][5] In Old French the verb meant to inform someone of an event and to recall or summon again, both from the second half of the 12th century, and in Anglo-Norman it was already a legal word: it meant to refer a case back to another court by the end of the 13th century and to send a prisoner back into custody by 1297.^[5] The Latin verb meant to send back word in the Vulgate and to send back from the 9th century, and it was used for referring a plea back to its court of origin in a British source of 1497.^[5] The OED compares Old Occitan remandar, Spanish remandar and Italian rimandare.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To send something back again to a place, to reconsign: 1439–40, in the Rolls of Parliament.^[5][3] Etymonline dates the verb to the mid 15th century, with the sense "to send (something) back".^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the late 15th century the verb also meant to bring or fetch back and to countermand (from about 1473, in Caxton, until 1772), and to call or summon back (1525–1837).^[5] Sending back a person, or ordering someone to go back to a place, is recorded from 1579^[5] (by the 1580s in Etymonline).^[6] The legal senses grew alongside: referring a prisoner, indictment or case to a court, especially back to a lower court, from 1514; committing a prisoner to custody from 1593; and sending a prisoner back into custody from 1641,^[5] a sense Barnhart dates to 1643 and Etymonline to the 1640s.^[2][6] Johnson (1755) defined the verb only as "to send back; to call back".^[10] The noun at first meant any act of sending or calling back (1601–1771); its legal sense, the recommittal of an accused person to custody, is recorded from 1841, often in the phrase on remand.^[5] From 1859 it could also mean a remanded prisoner.^[5] Barnhart and the Shorter Oxford date the noun to the late 18th century.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1439 – to send a thing back again; to reconsign.^[5][3]
• c. 1473 – to bring or fetch back; to countermand (obsolete by 1772).^[5]
• 1514 – in law, to refer a prisoner or case to a court, especially back to a lower court.^[5]
• 1525 – to call back, to recall (obsolete by 1837).^[5]
• 1579 – to send a person back; to order someone to go back.^[5][6]
• 1593 – to commit a prisoner to custody.^[5]
• 1601 – noun, an act of sending or calling back (obsolete by 1771).^[5]
• 1641 – to send a prisoner back into custody.^[5][3]
• 1841 – noun, recommittal to custody, often in on remand.^[5]
• 1859 – a prisoner on remand.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) Of a court or magistrate, to send an accused person back into custody, or sometimes release him or her on bail, while a case is adjourned or a trial awaited: The magistrates remanded both men for a week.^{[11][12][7][5]}
2. (law) To send a case back from a higher court to a lower one, or from a court to an administrative agency, for further action.^[12][7][5]
3. To send or order back; to consign again.^[12][11][5]
4. (obsolete, 1525–1837) To call back; to recall.^[5][10]

Noun

1. The act of remanding, or the state of being remanded: He spent three months on remand.^[12][11][5]
2. A prisoner who has been remanded.^[5][8]

Word family

• remandment
• unremanded
• remand home

Related words

• mandate
• command
• demand

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster