It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25th.
Today's word is countermand, spelled C-O-U-N-T-E-R-M-A-N-D.
Countermand is a verb.
To countermand an order is to revoke it, especially by giving a new order.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Daily Telegraph.
He almost missed his 1950 Welsh debut
as he was about to board an aircraft carrier for Hong Kong before the orders were countermanded.
In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands,
and sometimes the countermans, of the officers.
Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable, it's simply mandatory.
The Latin verb mandare meaning to entrust or to order, is the authority behind the word countermand.
It's also behind the words mandate, command, demand, command,
which can mean to entrust as well as to praise and mandatory.
Countermand came to English via Anglo-French,
where the prefix contra meaning against was combined with the verb mandé, meaning to command.
It's been part of the English language since the 1400s.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.