▪ I. † mand, n.1 Obs. rare—1.
[? a. OF. mand, mant, vbl. noun f. mander: see mand v.]
A question.
| 14.. Ipotis (MS. Ashm. 61, lf. 87), The emperour..Askyd a mand of þe chyld Why [etc.]. |
▪ II. mand, n.2
(mænd)
[a. Hindī mandūa. Cf. man-grass.]
An Indian grass of the genus Eleusine.
| 1862 Chambers's Encycl. IV. 6/2 Eleusine corocana, an Indian species, called Natchnee and Nagla Ragee, also Mand and Murwa. |
▪ III. mand, n.3
(mænd)
[Final element of com)mand, de)mand, etc.]
B. F. Skinner's term for an utterance aimed at producing an effect or result, etc. Cf. tact.
| 1957 B. F. Skinner Verbal Behavior ii. iii. 35 The term ‘mand’ has a certain mnemonic value derived from ‘command’, ‘demand’,..and so on... A ‘mand’, then, may be defined as a verbal operant in which the response is reinforced by a characteristic consequence and is therefore under the functional control of relevant conditions of deprivation or aversive stimulation. 1959 Anthropol. Ling. I. i. 41 It is interesting to speculate how far the program for the acquisition of mands and tacts will account for all verbal behavior. 1968 D. Lawton Social Class, Lang. & Educ. iv. 56 For Skinner, language behaviour is an example of learning by operant conditions... Requests, demands or commands (mands) tend to be reinforced by satisfaction of needs. Another kind of utterance is termed a ‘tact’, which is a response to a situation rather than a response to a need (e.g. ‘this apple is red’). 1972 Language XLVIII. 482 Beneath the linguistically questionable trappings (cf. Chomsky 1959) of mands, tacts, and echoic responses—..is there a brilliance which linguists in general have been prevented from seeing? 1973 Archivum Linguisticum IV. 52 ‘The ethnography of communication’—contains the item ‘mands’. |
▪ IV. † mand, v. Obs.
[a. OF. mander:—L. mandāre.]
trans. a. To send forth. b. To send for. c. To command.
| a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. 44 The mone mandeth hire lyht. 1483 Caxton Cato C iv b, He maunded and sente for hyr parentes. c 1500 Melusine 18 [Thanne the Erle Emery] manded & desyred a moch fayre company. Ibid. 73 Alayn manded or sent for a grete foyson of hys frendes. 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxx. (1612) 147 Aske whatso else I haue to giue, thous maunde it for a kis. |
▪ V. mand
see maund.