delegate

English

Etymology

From Middle English delegat, from Old French delegat, from Latin dēlēgātus.

Pronunciation

Noun

• enPR: dĕlʹĭ-gət, IPA^(key): /ˈdɛlɪɡət/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

• enPR: dĕlʹĭ-gāt', IPA^(key): /ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

delegate (plural delegates)

1. A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
2. A representative at a conference, etc.
3. (US) An appointed representative in some legislative bodies.
4. (computing) A type of variable storing a reference to a method with a particular signature, analogous to a function pointer.
   • 2010, Trey Nash, Accelerated C# 2010, page xxvi:

     Historically, all viable frameworks have always provided a mechanism to implement callbacks. C# goes one step further and encapsulates callbacks into callable objects called delegates.

5. A member of a governmental legislature who lacks voting power.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:deputy

Related terms

• (computing): function pointer

Translations

deputy, envoy, representative

• Albanian: delegat (sq) m, delegate (sq) f
• Arabic: مُوفَد m (mūfad), وَكِيل (ar) m (wakīl)
• Armenian: պատգամավոր (hy) (patgamavor), պատվիրակ (hy) (patvirak)
• Azerbaijani: nümayəndə (az)
• Bashkir: вәкил (vəkil)
• Belarusian: дэлега́т m (deljehát), дэлега́тка f (deljehátka), прадстаўні́к m (pradstaŭník), прадстаўні́ца f (pradstaŭníca)
• Bengali: প্রতিনিধি (bn) (protinidhi)
• Bulgarian: делега́т (bg) m (delegát), делега́тка f (delegátka), представи́тел (bg) m (predstavítel), представи́телка f (predstavítelka)
• Burmese: ကိုယ်စားလှယ် (my) (kuiyca:hlai)
• Catalan: delegat (ca) m, delegada (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 代表 (zh) (dàibiǎo), 使節／使节 (zh) (shǐjié)

• Czech: delegát (cs) m, delegátka f
• Danish: delegeret c, repræsentant c, befuldmægtiget c
• Dutch: afgevaardigde (nl) m, gedelegeerde (nl) m
• Estonian: delegaat, esindaja (et)
• Finnish: edustaja (fi)
• French: délégué (fr) m, déléguée (fr) f
• Georgian: დელეგატი (delegaṭi)
• German: Delegierter (de) m, Delegierte (de) f, Abgeordneter (de) m, Abgeordnete (de) f, Vertreter (de) m, Vertreterin (de) f
• Greek: απεσταλμένος (el) m (apestalménos), απεσταλμένη (el) f (apestalméni)
• Hebrew: בא-כוח m (bá-kóakh), נָצִיג (he) m (natsíg)
• Hindi: प्रतिनिधि (hi) m (pratinidhi), डेलीगेट m (ḍelīgeṭ), नुमाइंदा (hi) m (numāindā)
• Hungarian: küldött (hu), delegátus (hu)
• Icelandic: fulltrúi m
• Indonesian: wakil (id)
• Interlingua: delegato m, delegata f
• Italian: delegato (it) m, delegata (it) f
• Japanese: 代表 (ja) (だいひょう, daihyō), 使節 (ja) (しせつ, shisetsu), 代理人 (ja) (だいりにん, dairinin)
• Kazakh: делегат (delegat), өкіл (ökıl)
• Khmer: បេសកជន (peesaʼkaʼcŭən), ប្រតិភូ (km) (prɑtephuu)
• Korean: 대표(代表) (ko) (daepyo), 사절(使節) (ko) (sajeol), 대리인(代理人) (ko) (daeriin), 대리자(代理者) (ko) (daerija)
• Kyrgyz: делегат (delegat)
• Lao: ຜູ້ແທນ (phū thǣn), ຜູ້ຕາງຫນ້າ (phū tāng nā)
• Latvian: delegāts m, delegāte f, pārstāvis m, pārstāve f
• Lithuanian: delegatas m, delegatė f, atstovas m, atstovė f
• Macedonian: делега́т m (delegát), делега́тка f (delegátka), претставник m (pretstavnik), претставничка f (pretstavnička)
• Malay: wakil (ms)
• Maori: taraketi
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: төлөөлөгч (mn) (tölöölögč)

• Norman: d'lédgi m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: delegat m

  Nynorsk: delegat m

• Pashto: نماينده (ps) m (namāyənda)
• Persian: نماینده (fa) (namâyande), وکیل (fa) (vakil)
• Polish: delegat (pl) m, delegatka (pl) f
• Portuguese: delegado (pt) m, delegada f
• Romanian: delegat (ro) m, delegată (ro) f
• Russian: делега́т (ru) m (delegát), делега́тка (ru) f (delegátka), представи́тель (ru) m (predstavítelʹ), представи́тельница (ru) f (predstavítelʹnica)
• Scottish Gaelic: neach-ionaid m, riochdaire m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: делѐга̄т m

  Roman: delègāt (sh) m

• Slovak: delegát m, delegátka f
• Slovene: delegat m, delegatka f
• Spanish: delegado (es) m, delegada (es) f
• Swedish: delegat (sv) c
• Tajik: намоянда (namoyanda), вакил (vakil)
• Tatar: вәкил (tt) (wäkil), делегат (delegat)
• Thai: ตัวแทน (th) (dtuua-tɛɛn), ผู้แทน (th) (pûu-tɛɛn)
• Turkish: delege (tr)
• Turkmen: delegat
• Ukrainian: делега́т m (delehát), делега́тка f (delehátka), представни́к (uk) m (predstavnýk), представни́ця (uk) f (predstavnýcja)
• Urdu: نُمائِندَہ m (numā'inda), مَنْدُوب (ur) m (mandūb)
• Uyghur: ۋەكىل (wekil)
• Uzbek: vakil (uz), delegat (uz), namoyanda (uz)
• Vietnamese: đại biểu (vi)

Verb

delegate (third-person singular simple present delegates, present participle delegating, simple past and past participle delegated)

1. (intransitive) To commit tasks and responsibilities to others, especially subordinates.
   • 2020, Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Political Management: The Dance of Government and Politics:

     New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was perceived to delegate effectively. Wayne Mapp, a minister under Key observed he had 'a different style than the traditional style of New Zealand political management. He delegates in the manner of a chief executive, and lets ministers get on with their jobs' (Mapp 2014).

2. (transitive) To commit (a task or responsibility) to someone, especially a subordinate.
   • 2020 July 20, Simon Jenkins, “Britain deserves better than an Old Etonian Donald Trump”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The war on Covid-19 was delegated to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, a paralysed NHS and scientists publicly feuding over dud data.

3. (computing, Internet, transitive) (of a subdomain) To give away authority over a subdomain; to allow someone else to create sub-subdomains of a subdomain of one's own.

Translations

to commit a task to someone

• Arabic: فوض
• Armenian: պատվիրակել (hy) (patvirakel), լիազորել (hy) (liazorel)
• Asturian: delegar
• Belarusian: дэлегава́ць impf or pf (deljehavácʹ)
• Bulgarian: делегирам (bg) (delegiram), упълномощавам (bg) (upǎlnomoštavam)
• Catalan: delegar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 委託／委托 (zh) (wěituō)

• Czech: delegovat (cs)
• Danish: overdrage (da), delegere (da), uddelegere, betro
• Dutch: delegeren (nl)
• Estonian: delegeerima
• Finnish: delegoida (fi), antaa tehtäväksi, valtuuttaa (fi)
• French: déléguer (fr)
• German: delegieren (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: διατάσσω (diatássō)

• Hungarian: delegál (hu)
• Italian: delegare (it)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: deleģēt
• Maori: tuku mana
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: d'lédgi
• Norwegian: delegere
• Persian: سپردن (fa), تفویض کردن
• Polish: oddelegować
• Portuguese: delegar (pt)
• Romanian: delega (ro)
• Russian: поруча́ть (ru) impf (poručátʹ), поручи́ть (ru) pf (poručítʹ), уполномо́чивать (ru) impf (upolnomóčivatʹ), уполномо́чить (ru) pf (upolnomóčitʹ), делеги́ровать (ru) impf or pf (delegírovatʹ)
• Spanish: diputar (es), delegar (es)
• Swedish: delegera (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: делегува́ти impf or pf (delehuváty)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective

delegate

1. feminine plural of delegato

Participle

delegate f pl

1. feminine plural of delegato

Etymology 2

Noun

delegate f

1. plural of delegata

Etymology 3

Verb

delegate

1. inflection of delegare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Latin

Verb

dēlēgāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēlēgō

Spanish

Verb

delegate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of delegar combined with te