▪ I. mandate, n.
(ˈmændət)
Also 6 mandet, 6–8 mandat.
[ad. L. mandāt-um, neut. pa. pple. of mandā-re to command, enjoin, commit. Cf. F. mandat.]
1. gen. A command, order, injunction. Now poet. and rhetorical.
| 1576 Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs 12 The theeuishe Dogge,..at the mandate and bydding of his master fleereth and leereth abroade in the night. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 270 Sir I obey the Mandate, And will returne to Venice. 1625 Bacon Ess., Sedit. & Troub. (Arb.) 395 Cauilling vpon Mandates and Directions, is a kinde of shaking off the yoake. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. ii. 917 The royal mandate issues forth, Dashing at once their treason, zeal, and mirth. 1760 Johnson Idler No. 99 ¶7 He speaks, and his mandate is obeyed. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian vi, She immediately obeyed the mandate of the abbess. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iv. xxx, Some friend shall bear Our mandate with despatch and care. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. iv. iv, The mandate of God to His creature man is: Work! 1859 Mill Liberty i. (1865) 3/1 Society can and does execute its own mandates. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid iv. 237 Let him to sea; my mandate is this; be the messenger thou. |
2. spec. a. A judicial or legal command from a superior to an inferior; in early English law, a command of the king and his justices addressed to a court to control a suit; in U.S. Law, ‘the document promulgated upon the decision of an appeal or writ of error, as by the Supreme Court of the United States, directing what shall be done in the court below’ (Cent. Dict.).
| 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. (c 1553) 11. sig. F1 Submyttand me..ȝour plesour and mandate till obeysyng. 1552 Forme of Makyng Bishoppes, etc. B 4, Then shall the Archbishop demaund the king's mandate for the consecration, and cause it to be read. 1588–9 Act 31 Eliz. c. 9 §1 Everye suche Bisshopp or Chauncelor..shall by his or their Mandat directed to the Sherieff of the saide Countie Palantyne, cause Proclamacion to be made of the sames Writtes. 1597 Sir R. Cecil in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 44 She [Q. Elizabeth] therfor tooke upon her, by mandat, to prohibite him and his Countreis. a 1623 Swinburne Spousals (1686) 172 A general Mandate to contract Marriage is not sufficient, unless his Ratification, which made the Mandate, do follow. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Mandate..In our Common Law it is a commandement judicial of the King or his Justices to have any thing done for the dispatch of Justice. 1669 J. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. ii. 49 Next goes forth a Mandate from the Archbishop to the Archdeacon of his Province, to instal the Bishop elected, confirmed and consecrated. 1798 Ferriar Illustr. Sterne v. 153 All that was now wanting, was a mandate from the Elector, to authorize the completion of the marriage. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 129 [He] obtained..a mandate wherein the princes were required to restore all his castles to him. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 126 A similar change had recently been effected in England by judicial sentences: but in Scotland a simple mandate of the prince was thought sufficient. 1871 Dixon Tower III. xi. 109 He was recalled..by a royal mandate to his place in the House of Lords. 1887 T. Roosevelt T. H. Benton v. 113 Towards the close of Adams's term, Georgia had bid defiance to the mandates of the Supreme Court. |
b. A papal rescript, esp. with reference to preferment to a benefice (see quot. 1727–41).
| 1611 Cotgr., Mandat, A Mandate, or Mandamus for the preferment of one to a Benefice. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Mandate, Mandatum, in the canon law, denotes a rescript of the pope, by which he commands some ordinary, collator, or presenter, to put the person there nominated in possession of the first benefice vacant in his collation. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 71 Mandates for deposing Sovereigns were sealed with the signet of ‘the Fisherman’. 1848 Wharton Law Lex. 1871 C. M. Yonge Cameos II. xxi. 235 A mandate came from Pope Innocent for the King's excommunication. |
c. A command from the sovereign to elect a fellow of a college or to confer a degree. Hist.
| 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 1, I..was chosen Fellow of the said College by Queene Elizabeths Mandat. a 1628 T. Grevil Sidney (1652) 223 Her [Q. Eliz.] Universities were troubled with few Mandates. 1665 J. Buck in Peacock Stat. Cambridge (1841) App. B. p. lxxxvii, If any Mandates are brought for Degrees in the Vacation time, then this or the like Grace is propounded to the Caput Senatus. 1761 J. Bennet Ascham's Eng. Wks. Life 15 The young man was made by the Queen's mandate fellow of a college in Cambridge. |
d. Rom. Hist. An imperial command sent to the governor of a province.
| 1883 S. Amos Rom. Civ. Law 83 Mandates, or instructions to public officials, usually the emperor's ‘Legates’. Ibid., Most of the mandates of which a record is preserved relate to criminal law or police matters. |
† e. A pastoral letter. [= F. mandement.] Obs.
| 1763 Ann. Reg. 120 The archbishop of Paris..lately published a mandate, or pastoral letter, to the people of his diocese. 1824 Watt Bibl. Brit. II. 767 u, Pompignan, John George le Franc.. Archbishop of Vienna..Mandates prohibiting the reading of the Works of Rousseau and the Abbé Raynal. |
3. a. Roman Law. A commission by which one person (called the mandator) requested another (called the mandatarius: see mandatary) to act for him gratuitously, undertaking to indemnify him against loss. action of mandate = L. actio mandati, an action at law for the non-performance of a contract.
| 1756 G. Harris tr. Justinian's Instit. iii. xxvii. §1. 87 A mandate is given solely for the benefit of the mandator, when he requires the mandatary to transact his business, to buy lands, or to become a surety for him. Ibid. §13. 91 If a man gives his cloaths to a fuller, that they may be cleaned, or to a taylor, that they may be mended, and there is no agreement or promise made, an action of mandate will lie. 1870 Abdy & Walker tr. Gaius iii. clv. 222 A mandate arises, whether we give a commission for our own benefit or for another person's. 1883 S. Amos Rom. Civ. Law 236 By what has been called a qualified mandate (mandatum qualificatum) a person induced another to repose credit in a third person, and to that extent the principal became a sort of surety. |
b. Scots Law. ‘A contract by which one employs another to act for him in the management of his affairs, or in some particular department of them, of which employment the person accepts, and agrees to act’ (W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 1861).
| 1681 Visct. Stair Instit. i. xii. (1693) 108 The Terms in which Mandats or Commissions are expressed. 1753 Stewart's Trial 165 And deposes, that he gave no allowance or mandate to the pannel to make any application at Edinburgh against the removing. 1842 M{supc}Glashan Sheriff Crts. Scot. §575. 151 A mandate authorizing litigation or diligence to be carried on in name of a party who is out of the kingdom. 1870 Bell's Comment. Law Scot. (ed. 7) I. 516 The extent of a factor's authority and his powers are to be gathered from the mandate under which he acts. |
c. A contract of bailment by which the mandatary undertakes to perform gratuitously some service in respect of a thing committed to his keeping by the mandator.
| 1781 Sir W. Jones Law Bailments 53 The great distinction then between a mandate and a deposit is, that the former lies in fesance, and the latter simply in custody. 1883 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XV. 472 Mandate is retained by Story and others to signify the contract more generally known as gratuitous bailment. |
4. Politics. [After F. mandat.] a. The instruction or commission as to policy supposed to be given by the electors to a parliament or one of its members. Also transf.
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 375 [France] The members of the legislative body are not the representatives of the department which has chosen them, but of the whole nation, and no mandate instructions can be given them. 1880 M{supc}Carthy Own Times IV. 554 It would almost seem as if the present school of fiction is, to borrow a phrase from French politics, exhausting its mandate. 1886 Hansard Commons 9 Apr. 1244, I am perfectly aware that there exists in our constitution no principle of the mandate... But..I maintain that there are certain limits which Parliament is morally bound to observe, and beyond which Parliament has morally not the right to go in its relations with the constituents. 1901 Daily News 27 Mar. 4/4 Strictly speaking,..there is no such thing in England as a mandate. Lord Salisbury was the first to introduce into English politics that essentially Jacobinical phrase. 1902 Contemp. Rev. Dec. 809 No practical politician can desire to lay too much stress upon the mandate theory of a general election. 1936 R. C. K. Ensor England, 1870–1914 i. 25 Gladstone (who ten months earlier had been telling the queen that his work was done, his mandate exhausted, and he himself in need of a long rest) declared on 24 January [1874] his intention of dissolving parliament. 1968 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia) 11 July C14/4 We need to win only 36 [seats], which I am sure we can do, and that will be an overwhelming mandate for Scottish freedom. |
b. spec. A commission issued by the League of Nations (1919–1946) authorizing a selected power to administer, control, and develop a territory for a specified purpose; the territory so allocated. Also attrib.
| 1919 League of Nations Charter Art. xxii, The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the development of the people, the geographical situation of the territory, its economic conditions, and other similar circumstances. 1920 Glasgow Herald 7 Aug. 9 It will still be necessary for the Council to set up a permanent Mandate Commission. 1921 Spectator 12 Feb. 189/2 The draft mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia, which are to come before the Council of the League of Nations on February 21st, were published unofficially last week. Ibid. 2 Apr. 419/1 They apparently look upon mandate-making as a kind of old-fashioned diplomacy. 1924 Brit. Weekly 30 Oct. 98/4 The Mandate Section of the General Secretariat of the League of Nations. 1937 F. P. Crozier Men I Killed xii. 277 Are the British Mandates..a success? 1946 Ann. Reg. 1945 166 The Trusteeship System, replacing the Mandate System of the League, will cover a wider range of backward territories. 1972 Whitaker's Almanack 1973 951/2 Syria, which had been under French mandate since the 1914–18 war, became an independent Republic during the 1939–45 war. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VI. 557/3 Both the territories and the authority to administer them were called mandates. Among them were Britain's mandates in Palestine and Tanganyika. Ibid. 558/1 The Mandate System was replaced by the UN Trusteeship System in 1946. |
c. doctor's mandate: a mandate from the people empowering the government to take extreme measures in the national interest.
| 1931 Times 7 Oct. 14/1 Mr. MacDonald would issue a manifesto as the head of the National Government appealing for what is called a ‘doctor's mandate’. 1961 I. Jennings Party Politics II. vii. 291 The Government appealed to the people on a ‘doctor's mandate’. 1965 A. J. P. Taylor Eng. Hist. 1914–45 x. 324 MacDonald asked for ‘a doctor's mandate’—a blank authority for the National government to do whatever they could agree on. 1973 Times 17 Dec. 15/1 Some of the substantial voices that now call for a doctor's mandate from the people stand close enough to the Prime Minister for him to feel the full cogency of their persuasions. 1974 Observer 13 Jan. 1/3 The Prime Minister's main demand would be for a ‘doctor's mandate’ to enable him to take the measures he considers necessary to make the pay-and-prices policy effective. |
5. attrib. = maundy, in mandate bread, mandate money, Mandate Thursday.
| 1546 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 11 He payth' yerlie for breade wyne and waxe w{supt} thexpencez of Mandet Thursday x li. 1657 Sparrow Rationale Bk. Com. Pr. 157 Hence it is called Dies mandati, Mandate or Maundy Thursday. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 687/1 Maundy Thursday, is the Thursday in Passion week; which was called Maundy or Mandate Thursday. 1841 Hampson Med. ævi Kal. I. 185 The bread given to the poor on Maunday Thursday was named mandate bread mandati panes in the monasteries; as the coin given was called maundate [sic] money. |
▪ II. mandate, v.
(mænˈdeɪt)
[f. L. mandāt-, ppl. stem of mandāre to enjoin, command.]
1. trans. To command. Obs. rare—0.
| 1623 Cockeram, Mandate, to command. |
2. To commit (one's sermon) to memory. Sc.
| 1724 R. Wodrow Life J. Wodrow (1828) 32 After I have mandated my exercises. 1796 Simeon Gospel Message Pref. 3 He [Abp. Secker] then proceeds to express his disapprobation of what is called Mandating of Sermons, or repeating them from memory. This custom prevails much among foreign Divines, and throughout the whole Church of Scotland. 1860 J. Brown Let. J. Cairns in Horæ Subs. (1865) 97 His sermons being laboriously prepared, loudly mandated,..and then delivered with the utmost vehemence and rapidity. 1893 Crockett Stickit Minister (1894) 135 He rose and walked his study, ‘mandating’ his opening sentences with appropriate gestures. |
3. To assign (territory) under a mandate of the League of Nations. Cf. mandate n. 4 b. So manˈdated ppl. a.
| 1919 J. M. Keynes Econ. Consequences Peace 248 The Mandated States should be compelled to adhere to this Union for ten years. 1920 Glasgow Herald 7 July 11 The Island of Nauru in the Pacific (which is mandated to the British Empire). 1922 Weekly Dispatch 5 Nov. 8 We were authorised to raise local native forces to protect the mandated area. 1922 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Nov. 756/3 The result of the late war has been to eliminate Germany from the map, her territories being mandated to the British and other nations. 1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revolution xii. 119 Crown colonies, protectorates, condominiums, mandated territories of various categories. 1958 A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Method in Social Anthropol. i. iii. 90 Cadets who are selected for the administration of the Mandated Territory are sent to the territory for one or two years to make acquaintance with the kind of life and work they will have. 1970 Internat. & Compar. Law Q. XIX. 218 When this section was enacted, New Guinea was a Mandated Territory of the League of Nations. |
4. To give a mandate to, to delegate authority to (a representative, group, organization, etc.). Freq. as manˈdated ppl. a., permitted to act on behalf of a group, etc., approved by means of a mandate.
| 1958 Spectator 20 June 191/1 A delegate conference was called, and garages invited to mandate their representatives to vote for or against continuance [of a strike]. 1967 National Observer (U.S.) 3 July 13 Mr. Reagan must raise the money to pay off that deficit and to pay for mandated new programs. 1968 Smith & Zurcher Dict. Amer. Politics (ed. 2) 231 Mandated expenditure, an expenditure which a State requires a municipal government to make, often from locally collected funds, and often without reimbursement from State funds. 1969 D. Widgery in Cockburn & Blackburn Student Power 126 Universities with a strong and democratic union came to Council with an elected delegation fully briefed and mandated on all issues by general meetings. 1972 Daily Tel. 29 Apr. 14 The [union] delegates are elected by, and frequently mandated by, those members who attend branch meetings. 1973 Black World May 35/2 The Committee mandated its current chairman..to visit all O.A.U. member states. 1973 Black Panther 21 July p. b, Their annual salary increases exceed the nationally-mandated rate. 1974 Daily Tel. 25 May 6/5 Mr Thorne, a member of the national executive, said he was mandated to vote for industrial action. |
Add: 5. To require (some action) by legal mandate or other formal process; more generally, to make mandatory or compulsory; (with abstract subject) to necessitate. chiefly U.S.
| 1967 National Observer (U.S.) 3 July 13 Mr. Reagan must raise the money to pay off that deficit and to pay for mandated new programs. 1975 P. Gerber Willa Cather iii. 84 Cather had found that dedication mandates loneliness. Ibid. 88 The adoption of Jim's point-of-view not only explains but actually mandates the episodic structure of the novel. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 10 Jan. 10/1 Until the Government began mandating better auto safety, it was difficult if not impossible to buy American-made cars with such things as crash-resistant bumpers. 1981 Observer 6 Sept. 16/9 No single carrier could have unilaterally reduced its services. But the strike mandated a 20 to 25 per cent reduction in operations generally. 1991 South Aug. 48/1 Zionist ideology mandates free entry for any Jew wishing to settle in Israel. |