Remanded

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The condition of being placed back in custody while awaiting future legal action or decisions
2. The state of being ordered to return to confinement as part of ongoing judicial processes or evaluations
3. The act of being sent back into custody by a court while awaiting further legal proceedings or determinations

Etymology: "Remanded" is the past form of "remand", and the verb is a good example of a legal term that kept its original sense of sending something back. In Middle English, "remaunden" meant simply "to send back", a meaning that traveled from Middle French "remander" and Late Latin "remandare", literally "to send backward". The Latin verb "remandare" also carried the sense "to order", and that second strand is what the English word absorbed as courts began to use it. The verb's core idea of returning someone to a previous place is still visible in its legal use. When a magistrate remands a defendant, the person is sent back to custody, often to a prison or detention center, until the case moves forward. The word's relative "countermand", meaning to revoke an order, shares the same Latin root of commanding and sending back.

Synonyms: returned, sent back