maund

See also: Maund

English

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /mɔːnd/
  • Rhymes: -ɔːnd

Etymology 1

From Middle English maunde, maundie, from borrowed Old French mande, borrowed from Middle Dutch mande, from Old Dutch *manda, from Proto-West Germanic *mandu.

Alternative forms

Noun

maund (plural maunds)

  1. A wicker basket.
  2. A unit of capacity with various specific local values.
  3. (regional) A handbasket with two lids.

Etymology 2

Anglicised pronunciation of mainly Hindi मन (man) / Urdu من‎ (man) meaning a certain unit of weight, also confused with Hindi मान (mān) / Urdu مان‎ (mān, “measure”). The -d is probably from assimilation with Etymology 1 above, or from comparison with pound.

Alternative forms

Noun

maund (plural maunds)

  1. (historical) A unit of weight in southern and western Asia, whose value varied widely by location. Two maunds made one chest of opium in East India. One maund equalled 136 pounds of opium in Turkey.
    • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “In Flood Time”, in In Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, page 410:
      Now the rail has come, and the fire-carriage says buz-buz-buz, and a hundred lakhs of maunds slide across that big bridge.
Usage notes

This spelling (maund) is usually used for the unit in British India, equal to 25 pounds avoirdupois at Madras, 28 pounds avoirdupois at Bombay and 10 troy pounds at Calcutta. For the equivalent unit in the Mughal Empire and in Persian- and Arabic-speaking countries, it is more usual to use the spelling mun or man (italicised to show that the word has not been assimilated into English).

Translations

Etymology 3

Unclear, but possibly from French mendier or quémander (“to beg”). Compare Romani mang (“to beg”).

Noun

maund (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) begging

Verb

maund (third-person singular simple present maunds, present participle maunding, simple past and past participle maunded)

  1. (archaic) to beg
  2. (obsolete) To mutter; to mumble or speak incoherently; to maunder.

Anagrams
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