The state and its institutions

A news bulletin about France is half made of these words, and this list takes no position on any question: it says what they denote. One of them is le mandat, and it does three unrelated jobs. The first is the term of office: son mandat de cinq ans, briguer un second mandat. The second is at the post office: un mandat postal is a money order, a way of sending cash to somebody without a bank. The third is at the court: un mandat d’arrêt is an arrest warrant, un mandat de perquisition a search warrant. English « mandate » is none of the three — it is the authority voters are said to have handed over, as in « a clear mandate » — so the French word needs three separate English ones: term, postal order, warrant. What holds all four together is the Latin: mandatum, a thing entrusted to somebody to carry out.