Etymology

delegate

D2E1L1E1G2A1T1E1

Today it means: A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy. Full definition →

Middle English delegat ← Old French delegat ← Latin dēlēgātus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

delegate · noun1

  1. Latin · derived fromdēlēgātus
  2. Old French · derived fromdelegat
  3. Middle English · inherited fromdelegat
  4. English todaydelegate

From Middle English delegat, from Old French delegat, from Latin dēlēgātus substantivized from the nominative masculine singular of dēlēgātus, the perfect passive participle of dēlēgō (“to send, assign, delegate”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix). See also legate.

delegate · verb2

  1. Latin · borrowed fromdēlēgātus
  2. English todaydelegate

From the above noun by metanalysis or directly borrowed from Latin dēlēgātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

delegate · adjective3

  1. Middle English · inherited fromdelegat(e)“delegated”
  2. English todaydelegate

From Middle English delegat(e) (“delegated”, used as a past participle and adjective), used as the past participle of delegate up until Early Modern English, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.