Etymologically
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mandare

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Pronunciation

  • /manˈda.re/[1]

Forms

mandare (first-person singular present màndo, first-person singular past historic mandài, past participle mandàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old Italian also had the form mannare.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mandō (“to entrust; to commission, order”).[3][1][4] The Latin verb is usually analysed as a contraction of *man(um) dare, equivalent to the phrase in manum dare (“to put into someone's hand”), with manus (“hand”).[5][3][4][6] Devoto saw in it a durative form of an older *mandere, made of the word for the hand and the root meaning to put that is found in condō.[7] The same verb is French mander, Occitan mandar, Catalan manar, Spanish mandar and Portuguese mandar.[3][8]

It came to mean to send because mittō, the old verb for sending, had shifted to the meaning to put (the source of mettere), and as Migliorini argued, the other verb filled the gap.[5][3] DELI labels the verb a learned word, but Prati held that the sense of sending was inherited, and only the senses of commanding and the legal ones were introduced through writing.[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Breve di Montieri of 1219, where the verb means “to make someone go somewhere with an order and a purpose”.[5][3] The sense “to send” something is found in the 13th-century Elegia giudeo-italiana.[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for “to grant” a reward or punishment (Giacomino Pugliese, before 1250) and “to give out, emit” (Guido Cavalcanti, before 1300).[5] Dante has it for Minos judging the damned: giudica e manda secondo ch'avvinghia “he judges and sends each one down according to how he wraps his tail”.[4] In the 14th century it could also mean “to command”, and in 16th-century Venice “to send for trial, condemn”, while Varchi uses it for throwing the ball.[10] The senses “to assign someone to a post” (Savonarola, before 1498) and “to set in motion, make work” (Giusti, 1833) followed.[5]

The verb forms many idioms: mandare giù “to swallow” and “to put up with”, mandare via “to send away, dismiss”, mandare a quel paese “to tell someone to get lost”, mandare a dire “to send word”.[11][12][6] Its noun mandato “mandate, warrant” was taken from Latin mandātum, and mandamento as an administrative district came in 1859 from Piedmontese usage.[3][9]

Timeline

  • 1219 – The Breve di Montieri has the first record.[5]
  • 13th century – The Elegia giudeo-italiana uses the verb for “to send”.[5]
  • before 1250 – Giacomino Pugliese uses it for “to grant” as a reward or punishment.[5]
  • before 1300 – Guido Cavalcanti uses it for “to emit”.[5]
  • before 1348 – Mandata “sending” is recorded in Francesco da Barberino.[5]
  • before 1498 – Savonarola uses the verb for assigning someone to a post.[5]
  • 1833 – Giuseppe Giusti uses it for “to set going”.[5]
  • 1859 – Mandamento becomes the name of an administrative district.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To send someone somewhere, usually for a purpose: Abbiamo mandato Luca a comprare il pane. Mandare a chiamare qualcuno: to send for someone.[4][6][13]
  2. (transitive) To let someone go, or have them go, somewhere: mandare un ragazzo in collegio.[4][6]
  3. (transitive) To send something, have it delivered: Le ho mandato un messaggio stamattina.[4][6][13]
  4. (transitive) To direct water, gas and the like into a channel or pipe.[13][11]
  5. (transitive) To throw, launch: mandare il pallone in tribuna.[6][12][1]
  6. (transitive) To give out, emit a sound, a smell or light: mandare un lamento.[1][14]
  7. (transitive) To bring someone into a state: mandare in bestia, to drive mad.[6][11]
  8. (transitive) To condemn to a penalty: mandare a morte.[4][14]
  9. (transitive) Mandare giù: to swallow, and figuratively to put up with: Quella risposta non l'ha mandata giù.[11][12]

Word family

  • mandamento
  • mandante
  • mandato
  • rimandare
  • mandata
  • mandatario
  • rimando
  • tramandare

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 269
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 624
  10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2341
  11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana