Deputy

How to spell deputy

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce deputy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deputy mean?

1. nounA person appointed to act for another or as the immediate subordinate of someone in authority.
2. adjectiveDesignating a person who is the immediate assistant to and substitute for a more senior official.

Deputy in a sentence

• noun

  The manager left her deputy in charge during the conference.

• adjective

  The deputy governor took over while the governor was abroad.

• noun

  The sheriff sent a deputy to investigate the break-in.

• adjective

  She was appointed deputy chair of the committee.

Where does deputy come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb deputare, which combined the prefix de-, meaning 'away' or 'off', with putare, meaning 'to reckon, consider, or prune'. In late Latin deputare came to mean 'to assign or allot', the sense of setting something aside for a particular purpose. The word passed into Old French as deputer, and its past participle gave the noun député, meaning a person assigned to act for another. English borrowed it in the fifteenth century, originally as a verb meaning 'to appoint as a substitute' and soon as a noun for the appointed stand-in. The same putare root survives in 'compute', 'dispute', and 'reputation', a useful reminder that the middle of deputy is spelled with the letters p-u-t, not the 'pew' sound you hear.

How the word is built

• de- (away, from Latin)
• put (to reckon, consider, from Latin putare)
• -y (noun suffix)