delegate (n.)

late 15c., "person appointed and sent by another or others with power to transact business as a representative," from the past-participle adjective (early 15c.), from Old French delegat or directly from Latin delegatus, past participle of delegare "to send as a representative," from de- "from, away" (see de-) + legare "send with a commission," possibly literally "engage by contract" and related to lex (genitive legis) "contract, law," from PIE root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather."

Sense of "person sent with representative powers to a convention, conference, etc." is from c. 1600. In U.S., "person elected or appointed to represent a territory in Congress," by 1825.

also from late 15c.

delegate (v.)

"to send with power to transact business as a representative," 1520s, from past-participle stem of Latin delegare "to send as a representative," from de "from, away" (see de-) + legare "send with a commission," possibly literally "engage by contract" and related to lex (genitive legis) "contract, law," from PIE root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather." Related: Delegated; delegating.

also from 1520s

Entries linking to delegate

de-

active word-forming element in English and in many verbs inherited from French and Latin, from Latin de "down, down from, from, off; concerning" (see de), also used as a prefix in Latin, usually meaning "down, off, away, from among, down from," but also "down to the bottom, totally" hence "completely" (intensive or completive), which is its sense in many English words.

As a Latin prefix it also had the function of undoing or reversing a verb's action, and hence it came to be used as a pure privative — "not, do the opposite of, undo" — which is its primary function as a living prefix in English, as in defrost (1895), defuse (1943), de-escalate (1964), etc. In some cases, a reduced form of dis-.

*leg- (1)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to collect, gather," with derivatives meaning "to speak" on the notion of "to gather words, to pick out words."

It forms all or part of: alexia; analects; analogous; analogue; analogy; anthology; apologetic; apologue; apology; catalogue; coil; colleague; collect; college; collegial; Decalogue; delegate; dialect; dialogue; diligence; doxology; dyslexia; eclectic; eclogue; elect; election; epilogue; hapax legomenon; homologous; horology; ideologue; idiolect; intelligence; lectern; lectio difficilior; lection; lector; lecture; leech (n.2) "physician;" legacy; legal; legate; legend; legible; legion; legislator; legitimate; lesson; lexicon; ligneous; ligni-; logarithm; logic; logistic; logo-; logogriph; logopoeia; Logos; -logue; -logy; loyal; monologue; neglect; neologism; philology; privilege; prolegomenon; prologue; relegate; sacrilege; select; syllogism; tautology; trilogy.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek legein "to say, tell, speak, declare; to count," originally, in Homer, "to pick out, select, collect, enumerate;" lexis "speech, diction;" logos "word, speech, thought, account;" Latin legere "to gather, choose, pluck; read," lignum "wood, firewood," literally "that which is gathered," legare "to depute, commission, charge," lex "law" (perhaps "collection of rules"); Albanian mb-ledh "to collect, harvest;" Gothic lisan "to collect, harvest," Lithuanian lesti "to pick, eat picking;" Hittite less-zi "to pick, gather."

Trends of delegate

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to Explore

assign

c. 1300, "to transfer, convey, bequeath (property); appoint (to someone a task to be done); order, direct (someone to do something); fix, settle, determine; appoint or set (a time); indicate, point out," from Old French assigner "assign, set (a date, etc.); appoint legally; allot

legate

General sense of "ambassador, delegate, messenger of a state or authority" is from late 14c. in English....

secondary

As a noun from mid-15c. as "thing or place of secondary importance or which is dependent on a primary;" 1590s as "a delegate...

cast

c. 1200, "throw, throw violently, fling, hurl," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse kasta "to throw" (cognate with Swedish kasta, Danish kaste, North Frisian kastin), a word of uncertain origin. The meaning "to form in a mold" is late 15c. In the sense of "to throw" it r

bump

1590s, "protuberance caused by a blow;" 1610s as "a dull-sounding, solid blow;" see bump (v.). The dancer's bump and grind is attested from 1940. To be like a bump on a log "silent, stupidly inarticulate" is by 1863, American English....1560s, "to bulge out;" 1610s, "to strike he

representative

1580s, "serving to portray or symbolize," from French representatif (early 14c.) or directly from Medieval Latin repraesentativus, from stem of Latin repraesentare "show, exhibit, display" (see represent). Meaning "standing for others, acting as a substitute or agent for another"

charge

early 13c., chargen, "to load, put a burden on or in; fill with something to be retained," from Old French chargier "to load, burden, weigh down," from Late Latin carricare "to load a wagon or cart," from Latin carrus "two-wheeled wagon" (see car). The senses of "entrust," "comma

devolve

mid-15c., devolven, "to roll downward or onward" (a sense now archaic or obsolete), from Latin devolvere "to roll down," from de "down" (see de-) + volvere "to roll," from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve." Figurative sense of "to cause to pass down, transfer (something) from

regiment

late 14c., "government, rule, authority, control," a sense now obsolete, from Old French regiment "government, rule" (14c.), from Late Latin regimentum "rule, direction," from Latin regere "to rule, to direct, keep straight, guide" (from PIE root *reg- "move in a straight line,"

appoint

late 14c., "to decide, resolve; to arrange the time of (a meeting, etc.)," from Anglo-French appointer, Old French apointier "make ready, arrange, settle, place" (12c., Modern French appointer), from apointer "duly, fitly," from phrase à point "to the point," from a- "to" (see ad

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updated on November 19, 2018

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