# delegate
## English
### Etymology 1

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 (noun-forming suffix). See also legate.

#### Pronunciation 1

* enPR: dĕlʹĭ-gət, IPA: /ˈdɛlɪɡət/
* 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.
    The house of delegates in apartheid-era South Africa lacked any real voting power.

##### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:deputy

##### Related terms

* (computing): function pointer

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From the above noun by metanalysis or directly borrowed from Latin dēlēgātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

#### Pronunciation 2

* enPR: dĕlʹĭ-gāt', IPA: /ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

#### 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: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.

##### Derived terms

* delegatable
* delegatee
* delegator
* delegee
* nondelegate
* nondelegated
* redelegate
* subdelegate
* super-delegate
* superdelegate
* undelegated

### Etymology 3

From Middle English delegat(e) (“delegated”, used as a past participle and adjective), used as the past participle of delegate up until Early Modern English, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

#### Adjective

delegate (not comparable)
* (obsolete, past participle) delegated
* (obsolete, adjective) Acting as a delegate, delegated; of, pertaining to a delegate

## 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:
** second-person plural present indicative
** 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