Other forms: delegates, delegated, delegating
To delegate is to hand a job to someone else along with the power to do it. Not just the work — the authority. A manager delegates the monthly report to a junior; a parent delegates the school run to the neighbour.
Delegate is a noun as well, and the sound changes with the job: you DEL-uh-gayt a task, but you send a DEL-uh-gut to a conference. A delegate is a person sent to speak for a group — a union delegate, a delegate at a party convention. The noun delegation does two jobs at once: the act of handing work down, and the group of people sent. The patterns are delegate something TO someone, and delegate someone TO DO something. What managers get wrong is delegating the task while keeping every decision, which is not delegation at all.
1verbdelegateTo give a task, and the authority to carry it out, to someone who works under you.
“She learned to delegate the paperwork and got her evenings back.”
synonyms: entrust, assign
2verbappointTo appoint someone to act or speak on your behalf.
“The board delegated two members to negotiate the lease.”
3nounrepresentativeA person sent to a meeting or conference to represent a group.
“Three hundred delegates filled the hall for the opening speech.”
synonyms: representative, envoy
Delegate comes from Latin dēlēgō, to send or assign, and reached English through Old French delegat and Middle English delegat. The same lēg- sits inside legate, an official sent to act for someone else. The idea has always been about sending: a job, or a person, off to be dealt with elsewhere.
Latin
dēlēgātus
Old French
delegat
Middle English
delegat
English, today
delegate
Built from
From Middle English delegat, from Old French delegat, from Latin dēlēgātus substantivized from the nominative masculine singular of dēlēgātus, the perfect passive participle of dēlēgō (“to send, assign, delegate”), see -ate. See also legate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs, Office & Admin