Word: syndicate Part of Speech: noun 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”). Pronunciation: /ˈsɪndɪkət/ 1. A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group. Example: a gambling syndicate Example: 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. 2. A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group. Example: 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. 3. A group of individuals or companies formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest; a self-coordinating group. Example: 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. 4. The office or jurisdiction of a syndic; a body or council of syndics. Example: 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. Example: 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, […]