Ombudsman

How to spell ombudsman

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ombudsman

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ombudsman mean?

1. nounAn independent official appointed to investigate and resolve individual complaints against a government department, company, or other organisation.

Ombudsman in a sentence

• After the bank refused her appeal, she referred the dispute to the financial ombudsman.

• The newspaper appointed an ombudsman to handle reader complaints about its reporting.

Where does ombudsman come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word came into English directly from Swedish in the mid twentieth century, around the 1950s, when Britain and other countries began copying the Scandinavian model of an independent official who investigates complaints against government. The Swedish ombudsman is built from ombud, meaning a commissioner, agent, or proxy, plus man, meaning man or person, so the whole thing literally describes a person acting as an appointed representative. The Swedish ombud traces back to the Old Norse umboð, meaning a charge, commission, or administration entrusted to someone. Sweden created the office of the Justitieombudsman in 1809 to oversee the conduct of officials, and the term spread internationally with the institution itself. The spelling trap lies in the unfamiliar Scandinavian shape: the silent feel of the -ds- cluster in the middle and the -bud- spelling (not -bod-) catch writers who only know it by ear.

How the word is built

• ombud (Swedish: commissioner, agent, proxy)
• -s- (genitive link)
• man (man, person)