mandate
Definitions
General English
- noun the power given to a person to act on behalf of someone else
Accounting
Construction
- A court-authorized command or direction that a person is bound by law to obey.
Human Resources
- verb to give instructions to someone who will represent you in negotiations
Law
- noun the authority given to a person or persons to act on behalf of the person or persons giving the authority and carry out their wishes
- verb to give a person or persons the authority to carry out a specific action on behalf of another person or persons and according to their wishes
Military
- noun an instruction or directive from an official organization (e.g. EU, UN, etc)
Politics
- noun the authority given to a person or group to do something for somebody else
- verb to give a government the authority to carry out policies
- verb to give a person authority to vote for a group
Origin & History of “mandate”
Etymologically, mandate means ‘give one’s hand’. It comes from mandātum (source also of English maundy), a noun use of the past participle of Latin mandāre ‘commit, command’. this verb was formed by blending manus ‘hand’ and dāre ‘give’. English verbs derived from mandāre are command, commend, demand, and remand.
