Maundy

I must have heard hundreds of times that "Maundy is from the Latin word mandatum, meaning 'commandment.' Jesus giving us a New Commandment." But apparently no one remembers it, because people keep asking where this comes from year after year.  Maybe it is because people usually say "Monday Thursday" which send us down a wrong path mentally. 

Maybe they should just say the Latin means "mandate" or "mandatory." Is that so hard? Wouldn't that stick in the memory better? Do they think people don't know those words? Or did it not occur to them either?

This has annoyed me for decades.