Maundies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Ceremonial coins distributed by the British monarch to elderly people on Maundy Thursday ; the Thursday before Easter rituals of charity and washing the feet of the poor
2. Special silver coins handed out by the British sovereign at an Easter-time service ; the old church rites of almsgiving and foot-washing observed on the Thursday before Easter
3. Commemorative coins presented by the reigning monarch each spring ; the religious observances of charity and ritual foot-washing held on Holy Thursday

Etymology: "Maundies" is the plural of "maundy," and the plural itself is the more familiar form in English today, usually meaning the Royal Maundy: a ceremony in which the British monarch distributes specially minted coins to elderly people on the Thursday before Easter. The noun traces back through Middle English "maundee" and "maunde" to Old French "mandée," meaning "mandated," and ultimately to Latin "mandatum," "commandment." It is a doublet of "mandate," meaning that the two words descend separately from the same Latin source, one arriving through French and the other borrowed directly. The sense of the word was shaped by a single Latin phrase. The foot-washing performed on Maundy Thursday commemorates Jesus washing his disciples' feet, and in the Latin Vulgate translation of John 13:34 the words "Mandatum novum do vobis," "A new commandment I give unto you," introduced the ceremony. The name for the ritual came from its opening word, so that a commandment to love one another became a label for the washing of feet and eventually for the royal gifts that accompany the service.