maundy

Meaning

Noun

• A commandment.
• The sacrament of the Lord's supper.
• The ceremony of washing the feet of poor persons or inferiors, performed as a religious rite on Maundy Thursday in commemoration of Christ's washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper.
• The office appointed to be read during the religious ceremony of foot-washing.

Related

Similar words

• nipter

Origin

• From Middle English maundee, maunde, from Old French mandée, from Latin mandatum. mandate. The word came to refer to the foot-washing ceremony performed on Thursday before Easter because of the phrase used by Jesus to explain his act of foot-washing, which in the Latin Vulgate begins: Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem ..., i.e. "A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another …" (John 13:34).