WORD OF THE DAY: COUNTERMAND
verb | KOUNT-er-mand
What It Means
To countermand an order is to revoke it, especially by giving a new order.
// Orders to blow up the bridge were countermanded by local officials.
Examples of COUNTERMAND
“He [rugby player Lewis Jones] almost missed his 1950 Welsh debut as he was about to board an aircraft carrier for Hong Kong before the orders were countermanded.” — The Daily Telegraph (London), 9 Mar. 2024
Did You Know?
In the military, one’s mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it’s simply mandatory. The Latin verb mandare, meaning “to entrust” or “to order,” is the authority behind countermand. It’s also behind the words mandate, command, demand, commend (which can mean “to entrust” as well as “to praise”), and mandatory. Countermand came to English via Anglo French, where the prefix cuntre- (“against”) was combined with the verb mander (“to command”). It has been a part of English since the 1400s.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
