Etymologically
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mando

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈman.doː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈman.do][1]

Forms

mandō (present infinitive mandāre, perfect active mandāvī, supine mandātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin manus (“hand”) + -dō (“to put”), literally “to put in the hand”, with a change of conjugation.[2][1][3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *manuðō, which also has reflexes in Oscan.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius uses it of handing someone over to the enemy.[2] Köbler dates Ennius 204–169 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was to hand over or consign, to commit seeds to the ground or the dead to the tomb, and fugae sē mandāre was to take to flight.[2] It was to commit to writing or to memory, and to entrust to someone's care, as a music girl in Plautus.[2] From giving a commission it came to mean to instruct, order or command, to send word, and to order something to be made.[2][5]

It survives as Italian mandare, French mander and Spanish mandar.[1] English mandate comes from mandātum, demand from dēmandāre and command from a Vulgar Latin compound.[6]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.[2][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of entrusting a girl and a task.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses memoriae mandāre “to commit to memory”.[2][4]
  • c. 1500 – English mandate is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To hand over, consign; to commit (to the ground, to the tomb).[2][5]
  2. Fugae sē mandāre, to take to flight.[2]
  3. To commit (to writing), memoriae mandāre, to commit to memory.[2]
  4. To entrust, give into someone's care.[2][1]
  5. To commission; to order, command.[2][1]
  6. To send word, report.[2][1]

Word family

  • āmandō
  • commendō
  • dēmandō
  • mandātēla
  • mandatiuus
  • mandātor
  • mandatrix
  • mandātum
  • mandātus
  • praemandō
  • remandō

Usage notes

A different verb, mandō, mandere, meant “to chew”; it is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *m̥t-n(é)-h₂- (“to stir”), and Cicero contrasts animals that suck, crop, devour and chew (mandunt).[7][5] Döderlein contrasts iubeō, to bid by one's own will, and imperō, to command by authority.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper