Other forms: appointed, appointing, appoints
To appoint someone is to name them officially to a job or a role. A board choosing a new chief executive; a court appointing a lawyer for somebody who cannot pay for one.
You appoint a person TO a post, or appoint them AS something: she was appointed to the committee, he was appointed as head of the department. It fixes times and places as well, almost always in the participle, as in at the appointed hour or at the appointed place. The noun appointment leads two lives, the dentist at four o'clock and the act of giving somebody a job, as in his appointment was announced on Monday. Look out for well-appointed, which has nothing to do with jobs at all, since a well-appointed flat is one fitted out and furnished nicely. Appoint is a formal word; in speech people pick someone or give them the job.
Appoint came from Old French apointier, to prepare, arrange or place, from Latin appuncto, to bring back to the point, or to fix the point in an agreement. The punctum sitting inside it is simply a point. To appoint somebody is still to settle a point: this person, this post, decided.
Latin
appunctō — to bring back to the point, restore, to fix the point in a controversy, or the points in an agreement
Old French
apointier — to prepare, arrange, lean, place
Middle English
apointen
English, today
appoint
Built from
From Middle English apointen, borrowed from Old French apointier (“to prepare, arrange, lean, place”) (French appointer (“to give a salary, refer a cause”)), from Latin appunctō (“to bring back to the point, restore, to fix the point in a controversy, or the points in an agreement”); Latin ad + punctum (“a point”). See point.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA