Etymologically
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delegate

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Pronunciation

  • Noun: /ˈdɛlɪɡət/, /ˈdɛləɡət/[1]
  • Verb: /ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt/, /ˈdɛləˌɡeɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English delegat,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman delegat (“deputy, representative”),[4][5][6] and Medieval Latin dēlēgātus,[3][2][4] the noun use of the past participle of Latin dēlēgō (“to assign, entrust; to send”).[4][6][7] The French noun is recorded by the end of the 13th century, the Anglo-Norman one from 1298.[4][5] The verb comes directly from the past participial stem of the Latin verb,[4][7] though Barnhart thinks it may have developed in English from the noun or the adjective.[6] The Latin verb is formed from dē- (“from, away”) and lēgō (“to send with a commission, depute”),[8][4][7][9] the source of legate.[9][10] Etymonline suggests that this verb meant literally "to engage by contract" and is related to lēx (“contract, law”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to collect, gather”).[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, conveyed or sent to a part of the body: ?a1425, in the English translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, a rare and obsolete use.[4] As a noun, a person sent or appointed to act for others: a1475, in the English register of Godstow nunnery.[4] Barnhart dates the noun before 1475,[6] and Dictionary.com 1350–1400.[11]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, "appointed to act for another", is recorded from about 1460, often after the noun as in judge delegate,[4] and Johnson (1755) still listed it before the noun.[12] From 1554 Delegates were the royal commissioners who heard appeals from the church courts, the Court of Delegates (1577).[4] A person sent to a meeting or conference to represent a body is a delegate from 1600, in Holland's translation of Livy,[4][8] and at Oxford University the word named members of standing committees from before 1613.[4] In America it was used for the representatives of the colonies at the Continental Congress (1774), for those of a territory in Congress (by 1825), and for the voters at a party's national convention (1830);[4][8] the House of Delegates is the lower house of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia (1700).[4] The verb is recorded from 1530, in Palsgrave, both for sending a person as one's representative and for entrusting authority to someone else,[4][6][2] and in law, from 1722, for assigning one's debtor to one's creditor.[4]

Timeline

  • ?a1425 – adjective, conveyed to a part of the body (obsolete).[4]
  • c. 1460 – adjective, appointed to act for another.[4]
  • a1475 – noun, a deputy or representative.[4]
  • 1530 – verb, to send as a representative; to entrust authority.[4][2]
  • 1554 – a royal commissioner hearing church appeals.[4]
  • 1600 – a person attending a conference for a body.[4]
  • 1700 – House of Delegates, in Maryland.[4]
  • 1722 – verb, in law, to assign a debtor to a creditor.[4]
  • 1774 – a representative to the Continental Congress.[4]
  • 1830 – a voter at a party's national convention.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person chosen or elected to act for others, especially at a conference or meeting: Delegates from forty countries attended the summit.
  2. (US) A representative of a territory in the House of Representatives.
  3. (US) A member of the House of Delegates, the lower house of the legislature of Maryland, Virginia or West Virginia.
  4. (US) A voting participant at a party's national convention.

Verb

  1. To give a task, duty or authority to someone else to carry out: She delegated the paperwork to her deputy.
  2. To send or appoint someone as one's representative.
  3. (law) To assign a person who owes one a debt to one's own creditor.

Adjective

  1. (archaic) Delegated; acting for another.

Word family

  • delegator
  • delegatee
  • undelegated
  • nondelegate
  • redelegate
  • subdelegate
  • superdelegate
  • walking delegate
  • delegation
  • delegacy

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.