# delegate

Pronunciation: say "DEL-i-guht" /ˈdɛlɪɡət/

## Noun

1. A person given authority to act or speak on behalf of another; a deputy.
   - Simple: Someone chosen to speak or act for other people.
   - _The union sent a single delegate to negotiate with management._
   - _As the family's delegate, he signed the contract on their behalf._
2. A person who attends a conference or convention as a representative of a group.
   - Simple: A person sent to speak for a group at a big meeting.
   - _Each delegate at the summit represented a different country._
   - _Hundreds of delegates filled the hall for the opening session._
5. A representative serving in certain US legislative bodies, such as a state house of delegates. *(US)*
   - Simple: A person chosen to represent an area in certain US lawmaking groups.
   - _The delegate from the western district introduced a bill on water rights._
   - _Each county sends a delegate to the state house._
6. A member of a legislature who may take part in proceedings but holds no voting power.
   - Simple: A lawmaker who can join debates but cannot cast votes.
   - _The territory's delegate addressed the assembly but had no vote in the final count._
   - _Each territory sends a single delegate who lacks voting power._
7. In programming, a variable that stores a reference to a method with a particular signature, much like a function pointer.
   - Simple: In computer programming, a value that holds a link to a function so it can be called later.
   - _The event handler is registered through a delegate that matches the method's signature._
   - _In C#, a delegate can point to any method whose parameters match its definition._

## Verb

Pronunciation: say "DEL-i-gayt" /ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt/

3. To assign a task or responsibility to someone else, especially a person who works under you.
   - Simple: To give one of your jobs or duties to another person to do.
   - _Effective leaders delegate routine duties so they can focus on strategy._
   - _He delegated the budget review to his deputy._
4. To pass tasks and responsibilities on to others, especially people who work under you.
   - Simple: To give your tasks and duties to other people instead of doing them all yourself.
   - _New managers often struggle to delegate effectively._
   - _Leaders who refuse to delegate quickly burn out._
8. In networking, to hand over authority for a subdomain so that another party can manage it and create further subdomains.
   - Simple: In computer networks, to hand control of part of a web address to someone else.
   - _Administrators delegate a subdomain by pointing its nameserver records to a third party._
   - _The registrar delegated the zone to the customer's own DNS servers._

## Adjective

9. Exercising authority that has been handed down by another; acting in the capacity of a delegate. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Holding power that was passed down from someone with higher authority.
10. Committed or entrusted to another; delegated. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Passed on to another person to handle or carry out.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 5–7** — This noun comes from Middle English delegat, via Old French delegat, from Latin dēlēgātus. That was the perfect passive participle of dēlēgō ("to send, assign, delegate"), used as a noun with the suffix -ate.
**Meanings 3–4, 8** — The verb comes from the noun above by reanalysis, or was borrowed directly from Latin dēlēgātus, with the verb-forming suffix -ate. See Etymology 1 for the fuller history.
**Meanings 9–10** — This adjective comes from Middle English delegat(e) ("delegated"), which served as the past participle and adjective, and was used as the past participle of delegate up until Early Modern English, with the adjective-forming suffix -ate.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/delegate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).