ex officio

English

Etymology

From Latin ex officio (“by right of office”, literally “from the office”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛks əˈfɪʃioʊ/

Adverb

ex officio (not comparable)

1. By virtue of the office that originated it, or of the title held.

   Synonyms: of one's own motion, sua sponte, suo motu, motu proprio

   The President of the Republic of France is, ex officio, also prince of the dyarchy called Andorra.

   • 1830, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, On the Constitution of the Church and State:

     That friend […] added, with a smile, that he had more than once amused himself with the thought of a verbarian Attorney-General, authorized to bring informations ex officio against the writer or editor of any work in extensive circulation, who, after due notice issued, should persevere in misusing a word.

   • [1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 20, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, footnote, page 138:

     In the South every negro preacher is ex officio a D.D., and is commonly addressed as Doctor. This enables white Southerners to show a decent respect for his sacred office, and yet avoid the solecism of calling him Mister.]

Adjective

ex officio (not comparable)

1. By virtue of the office that originated it, or of the title held.
   • 1979 April 14, “Lambda Seeks Exec. Director”, in Gay Community News, page 2:

     Duties include […] sitting as ex-officio member of the Board of Directors and all Board committees.

   • 1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 136:

     Meanwhile, to Samsonov’s annoyance, Colonel Knox had arrived in Ostrolenka. Why, nobody knew—probably just to convey the goodwill of the British, who would not themselves be landing on the Continent for another six months. Samsonov disliked those artificial, ex officio European smiles at the best of times, and this visitor would be a hindrance and a distraction just at present.

Translations

by virtue of an office or title

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 當然／当然 (zh) (dāngrán), 官守 (zh) (guānshǒu) (Hong Kong)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: ambtshalve (nl)
• Finnish: viran puolesta
• German: von Amts wegen (de), amtswegig (de) (Austrian), kraft Amtes, qua Amt
• Hungarian: hivatalból (hu)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: z urzędu
• Swedish: ex officio (sv), å ämbetets vägnar, på ämbetets vägnar
• Tagalog: sabilin
• Turkish: resen (tr)

Further reading

• ex officio on Wikipedia.Wikipedia