Commissioner

How to spell commissioner

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce commissioner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commissioner mean?

1. nounA person appointed to hold authority over a department, body, or area of public business.

Commissioner in a sentence

• The police commissioner announced new funding for neighbourhood patrols.

• The planning commissioner rejected the developer's application for the riverside site.

Where does commissioner come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb committere, which combined com- meaning 'together' with mittere meaning 'to send' or 'to put'; the literal idea was of entrusting something to someone, of putting a matter into their hands. From committere came the noun commissio, meaning a 'sending together' or an entrusted task, and medieval Latin developed commissarius for an officer charged with a duty. English took 'commission' through Old French in the 1300s for an authority or task formally granted, and by the late 1400s added the agent ending to form 'commissioner', a person holding a commission. The spelling trap lives in that journey: the doubled m comes from the Latin com- prefix meeting the m of mittere, while the -ss- and -ion belong to the Latin commissio, giving the deceptive run of double m, double s, and -ioner. A close relative is 'commit', which keeps the same 'send/entrust' root visible.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• miss (sent, from Latin mittere 'to send')
• -ion (noun-forming)
• -er (agent: one who)