syndicate
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɪndɪkət/
Forms: form: syndicates
Etymology: Anglicized from French syndicat (“office of a syndic; board of syndics; trade union”) on the basis of -ate (forms nouns denoting rank or office, a group formed of people of this same office), equivalent to syndic (“syndic; representative; (especially) chief magistrate of Geneva”) + -at (“-ate”, forms nouns denoting rank or office), from Medieval Latin *syndicātus, from syndicus (“representative of a corporation or town; syndic”) (from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate for a defendant”), from σύν (sún, “beside; with”) + δίκη (díkē, “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”).
Senses: examples: text: a gambling syndicate
text: The worst deed ever alleged against the early sandalwood traders was that a number of natives were suffocated in a cave at Vaté, in the New Hebrides, by the smoke from a fire built at its mouth. But this was done by order of Maafu, who, on behalf of an Australian syndicate of highly-respectable merchants and church-members, was "bossing" an expedition in search of sandalwood through the New Hebrides.
ref: 1886, Julian Thomas, “Maafu, Prince of Tonga”, in Cannibals & Convicts: Notes of Personal Experiences in the Western Pacific, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassel & Company, Limited, →OCLC, page 24:
glosses: A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group.
examples: text: Held at the estate of Mafia boss Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, NY, the meeting called by [Vito] Genovese in November 1957 brought over 100 mobsters from around the country to cement his power over the national crime syndicate.
ref: 1999, John Madinger, “Case Development”, in Confidential Informant: Law Enforcement’s Most Valuable Tool, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 178:
glosses: A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group.
A group of gangsters engaged in organized crime.
qualifier: crime
examples: text: In the mid-1880s, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt broke into print inauspiciously as one member of the stable of writers who supplied humorous sketches and mildly sentimental or didactic squibs for S[amuel] S[idney] McClure's newspaper syndicate.
ref: 1980, Wiliam L. Andrews, “The Apprentice Years: Experiments and Decisions”, in The Literary Career of Charles W. Chesnutt, Baton Rouge, La.; London: Louisiana State University Press, →ISBN, page 17:
glosses: A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group.
A group of media companies, or an agency, formed to acquire content such as articles, cartoons, etc., and to publish it in multiple outlets; a chain of newspapers or other media outlets managed by such an organization.
qualifier: mass media
examples: text: The ſoveraintie lies in the Council of 200, and this Council chuſes out of its number 25, who are the leſſer Council; […] they are choſen by a ſort of ballet, ſo that it is not known for whom they give their votes, which is an effectual method to ſuppreſs factions and reſentments; ſince in a competition no man can know who voted for him or againſt him: yet the election is not ſo carried, but that the whole Town is in an intrigue concerning it: for ſince the being of the little Council leads one to the Sindicat, which is the chieffe honor of the State: this dignitie is courted here, with as active and ſolicitous an ambition as appears elſewhere for greater matters.
ref: 1686, G[ilbert] Burnet, Some Letters Containing, an Account of What Seemed Most Remarkable in Switzerland, Italy, &c. Written by G. Burnett, D.D. to T[he] H[onourable] R[obert] B[oyle], Rotterdam: Printed by Abraham Acher, bookseller by the Exchange, →OCLC, pages 10–11:
text: The executive government of the University [of Madras] shall be vested in a syndicate, consisting of the Vice-Chancellor and six of the fellows, who shall be elected for one year by the several faculties, at the annual meetng of the senate, […]
ref: 1859, [India Office, Government of the United Kingdom], “Copy of Correspondence with the Indian Government, Showing the Progress of the Measures Adopted for Carrying Out the Education Despatch of the 19th Day of July 1854. [Bye-laws for the Government of the University of Madras.]”, in Accounts and Papers: Twenty-one Volumes. … Session 2, 31 May – 13 August 1859, volume 10 (East India (Education)), part II (Madras); volume XXIV, part II, [London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office], →OCLC, page 367:
glosses: The office or jurisdiction of a syndic; a body or council of syndics.