syndic

English
WOTD – 15 July 2021

Etymology
Rembrandt, De Staalmeesters (The Sampling Officials) or De waardijns van het Amsterdamse lakenbereidersgilde (Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild, 1662),[n 1] which depicts officials of the Drapers’ Guild of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, elected to assess the quality of cloth offered by weavers for sale to guild members.

Borrowed from French syndic (“delegated representative; a chief magistrate of Geneva; a censor; critic (obsolete)”), from Late Latin syndicus (“representative of a corporation or town, syndic”), from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate of a defendant”), from σῠν- (sun-, prefix meaning ‘together, with’) + δῐ́κη (díkē, “law, order; right; judgment; justice; lawsuit; trial”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to point out”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns).[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

syndic (plural syndics)

  1. (government) A government official having different duties depending on the country; also, a magistrate, especially one of the Chief Magistrates of Geneva, Switzerland.
  2. (chiefly British) An agent of a corporation, or of any body of people engaged in a business enterprise; specifically, in the University of Cambridge, a member of the senate appointed to carry out specific duties.
    In France, syndics are appointed by the creditors of a bankrupt to manage the property.
    The University of Cambridge has syndics who are chosen from the senate to transact special business, such as the regulation of fees and the framing of laws.
    • 1890, Southern Reporter - Volume 6, page 99:
      The duties and powers of a provisional syndic are distinctly set out in section 1793 of the Revised Statutes. It says that "the duties of the provisional syndic shall consist in keeping, as a deposit, all the goods and other effects of the insolvent debtor; […] "
    • 1896, William L. Stewart, The Snow-Church Company's Legal and Banking Year Book, page 250:
      After such cession and acceptance, property of debtor mentioned in schedule shall be vested in creditors; and syndic shall take possession of same and administer and sell according to law.
    • 1918, Edward Franklin White, ‎William Kernan Dart, Louisiana Digest Annotated, page 123:
      A judgment homologating the final account of the syndic of an insolvent estate, which becomes final, is res judicata to all parties who participated in the cession or in concurso.
  3. (Catholicism) A layperson who is given official responsibility for the finances, care, and civil administration of the nonreligious details of a convent or religious community.
    • 1912, Catholic Encyclopedia - Volume 14, page 385:
      The larger powers with which the syndic was invested by Martin IV and by his successors, Martin V ("Constitutiones Martinianae") in Wadding, "Annales", X, 301) and Paul IV ("Ex Clementi", 1 July, 1555), gave rise to the appellation syndicus Martinianus in contradistinction to syndicus communis.

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Translations
agent of a corporation, or of any body of people engaged in a business enterprise

See also

Notes
  1. From the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

References
  1. “syndic, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1919; “syndic, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin syndicus (“representative of a corporation or town, syndic”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate of a defendant”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /sɛ̃.dik/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

syndic m (plural syndics, feminine syndique)

  1. syndic

Further reading
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