candidate

Etymology

First recorded c. 1600,^[1][2] borrowed from Latin candidātus (“clothed in white; candidate for office”),^[3][4] from Latin candidus (“white”).^[5][2] The name alludes to the white toga worn by candidates for office in ancient Rome;^[2][3] such togas were probably whitened with fine powdered chalk.^[1] Latin candidus goes back to candere “to shine”, from Proto-Indo-European *kand- (“to shine”).^[1]

By surface analysis, from English candid + -ate.^[6]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. [1] [2] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. [1] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. [1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org