syndication

Etymology

In its current senses it is formed from English syndicate + -ion,^[2][3] from the noun syndicate.^[2][3] The OED also records a single earlier use, in Hobbes (1650), for the action of judging, from medieval Latin syndicātio (“examination”), which comes from syndicō.^[3] It compares obsolete French syndication (“censure, criticism”) and Portuguese syndicação (“inquiry”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action or process of forming a syndicate: 1887, in the Christian Union, a quotation the OED takes from the Century Dictionary.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The modern word follows the senses of syndicate, which by the late 1880s was used both for a combination of capitalists and for an association that bought articles for simultaneous publication in several newspapers.^[2] Publication, broadcasting or ownership by a syndicate is recorded from 1925,^[2][3] the OED's first quotation coming from a letter of Aldous Huxley.^[3] Wiktionary defines it as the syndicating of a news feature for publication in many newspapers at once.^[1] Hobbes's sense, the action of judging, is marked obsolete and rare.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1887 – the forming of a syndicate.^[3][2]
• 1925 – publication or ownership by a syndicate.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The selling of articles, comic strips, television programmes or other material for publication or broadcasting by many outlets at once: The comic strip went into syndication in over two hundred papers.^[3][1][2]
2. The act or process of forming a syndicate of businesses or investors.^[3][2]

Related words

• syndicate
• syndic

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press