functionary

UK/ˈfʌŋ(k).ʃn̩.(ə)ri/US/ˈfʌŋ(k).ʃəˌnɛ.ri/

nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,732 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: functionaries

A functionary is an official who carries out routine duties. A minor functionary, party functionaries, some functionary or other.

It is always faintly contemptuous, since calling somebody a functionary says they exercise no judgement of their own. It is the word for the people between a decision and the person it lands on.

Definitions of functionary

1nounfunctionaryAn official who carries out routine duties.C2
“A bored functionary at the embassy stamped my passport without looking up.”

functionary is an official.

Where it comes from

French fonctionnaire comes from fonction, from Latin functio, a performance.

French
fonctionnaire
English, today
functionary

From French fonctionnaire; by surface analysis, function + -ary.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

functionary in the wild

Gerhard Friedrich Ernst Flesch was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era.
Gerhard Flesch
Ernst-Robert Grawitz was a German physician and an SS functionary (Reichsarzt, "Arzt" meaning "physician") during the Nazi era.
Ernst-Robert Grawitz
John Thomas Murphy was a British trade union organiser and Communist functionary.
J. T. Murphy
Ehrhardt Post was a German chess master and functionary.
Ehrhardt Post
Alfred Wagenknecht was an American Marxist activist and political functionary.
Alfred Wagenknecht

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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