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)

A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
A representative at a conference, etc.
(US) An appointed representative in some legislative bodies.
(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.
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)

(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).
(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.
(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: uỷ thác (vi), giao phó (vi)
Welsh: dirprwyo (cy)

Derived terms

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective

delegate

feminine plural of delegato

Participle

delegate f pl

feminine plural of delegato

Etymology 2

Noun

delegate f

plural of delegata

Etymology 3

Verb

delegate

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

Latin

Verb

dēlēgāte

second-person plural present active imperative of dēlēgō

Spanish

Verb

delegate

second-person singular voseo imperative of delegar combined with te