mandamus

English

Etymology

From Latin mandāmus (“we command”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mænˈdeɪməs/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: man‧da‧mus

Noun

mandamus (countable and uncountable, plural mandamuses)

1. (law) A common law prerogative writ that compels a court or government officer to perform mandatory or purely ministerial duties correctly.
   • 1833 January 21, “Proceedings in the Court of King's Bench, on Monday 21st January 1833”, in Proceedings Connected with the Writ of Mandamus Issued by His Majesty's Court of King's Bench Against the Court of Directors of the East-India Company, […], London: J. L. Cox and Son, →OCLC, page 94:

     I admit to all my learned friends that a Mandamus does not issue where there is another course of proceeding by which the thing can be effected; but I again state to your Lordships, that if in this case a Mandamus must not issue, there is no other proceeding that can be adopted.

   • 1849, Richard Jebb, “Cause Shown against the Rule [Regina v. The Archbishop of Canterbury]”, in A Report of the Case of the Right Rev. R[enn] D[ickson] Hampden, D.D., […], London: Richard Benning and Co., →OCLC, page 311:

     And then it was moved that the court would grant a mandamus to the delegates to admit the bishop's allegations: and it was compared to the cases where they grant mandamuses to compel the granting of probates of wills or letters of administration.

   • 1856, Mathew Bacon with Joseph Sayer, Owen Ruffhead, Henry Gwyllim, Charles Edward Dodd, Bird Wilson, and John Bouvier, A New Abridgment of the Law, volume VI, Philadelphia, Pa.: T. & J. W. Johnson & Co., →OCLC, page 419:

     A mandamus is a writ commanding the execution of an act, where otherwise justice would be obstructed, or the king's charter neglected, issuing regularly only in cases relating to the public and the government; and is therefore termed […] a prerogative writ.

   • 1876, Herbert Newman Mozley, George Crispe Whiteley, A Concise Law Dictionary, page 435:

     The lord is compellable by mandamus to admit the surrenderee, that is, the person to whose use the surrender is made.

Derived terms

• writ of mandamus

 

Verb

mandamus (third-person singular simple present mandamuses, present participle mandamusing, simple past and past participle mandamused)

1. (transitive) To serve a writ of this kind upon.

Latin

Verb

mandāmus

1. first-person plural present active indicative of mandō