commend

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To praise someone or something formally.

   The schoolboy was commended for raising the alarm about the fire.

2. 2
   verb

   To recommend something as worthy or good.

   The new policy has little to commend it.

3. 3
   verb

   To entrust someone or something to another's care.

   Before leaving, she commended her children to her mother's care.

Simplified etymology

Commend entered English in the Middle English period. It comes from the same root as command and was formed in the same way, but with the sense “entrust.” The family ultimately goes back to Latin mandare, “to commit, command, or entrust,” from manus, “hand,” and dare, “to give.”

From Middle English commenden, from Old French comender, from Latin commendō (“commend, entrust to, commit, recommend”), from com- + mandō (“to commit, intrust, enjoin”), from manus (“hand”) + dō (“to put”). Doublet of command.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary