Delegation

How to spell delegation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce delegation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does delegation mean?

1. nounA group of people chosen to represent an organisation, country, or community.
2. nounThe act of assigning a task or authority to another person.

Delegation in a sentence

• The trade delegation flew to Berlin to negotiate the new contract.

• Effective delegation let the manager focus on long-term planning.

• A small delegation from the residents' association met the council planners.

• Poor delegation left one employee buried under everyone else's work.

Where does delegation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb delegare, which combined de-, meaning 'down' or 'away', with legare, meaning 'to send as a deputy' or 'to commission'. The Latin legare in turn relates to lex, the word for 'law', so the underlying idea was of formally assigning a duty or authority to someone else, almost as a legal charge. From the verb came the Latin noun delegatio, describing the act of entrusting a task or sending a representative. English took the word in during the early 1600s, partly through French delegation, keeping both strands of meaning: the action of handing over responsibility and the body of people sent to act on another's behalf. The same legare root sits inside 'legate', 'legal', and 'relegate', which is a useful reminder that the single g in delegation is never doubled.

How the word is built

• de- (down, away)
• leg (from Latin legare: to send, depute, or commission)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix indicating an action or its result)