Other forms: syndicates
A syndicate is a group joining forces for a business purpose. A betting syndicate, a crime syndicate, form a syndicate.
It exists to spread a risk or a cost that nobody would take alone, which is why banks form one for a large loan and lottery players for a ticket. The verb means something different: to syndicate a column is to sell it to many papers at once.
1nounsyndicateA group joining forces for a business purpose.
“A syndicate of investors bought the football club last year.”
syndicate is a group.
French syndicat comes from syndic, a representative, from Greek syndikos, an advocate — syn, with, plus dike, justice.
Proto-Indo-European
*deyḱ-
Ancient Greek
σύνδικος — advocate for a defendant
Medieval Latin
*syndicātus
French
syndicat — office of a syndic; board of syndics; trade union
English, today
syndicate
Built from
Anglicized from French syndicat (“office of a syndic; board of syndics; trade union”) on the basis of -ate, equivalent to syndic (“syndic; representative; (especially) chief magistrate of Geneva”) + -at (“-ate”), from Medieval Latin syndicātus, from syndicus (“representative of a corporation or town; syndic”) (from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (“advocate for a defendant”), from σύν (“beside; with”) + δίκη (“judgment; justice”)) + -ātus (“-ate”). by surface analysis, syndic + -ate. Compare Italian sindacato (“syndicate; trade union; audit, control, supervision”), Occitan sendegat, Portuguese sindicato (“trade union”), Spanish sindicado, sindicato (“office of a syndic; syndicate; trade union”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA