An
official is someone who holds an office (function or
mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual
working space with it) in an
organisation or
government and participates in the exercise of
authority (either his own or that of his superior and/or employer, public or legally private).
A
government official or
functionary is an official who is involved in
public administration or government, through either
election,
appointment, or
employment. A
bureaucrat is a member of the
bureaucracy. An
elected official is a person who is an official by virtue of an election. Officials may also be appointed
ex officio (by virtue of another office, often in a specified capacity, such as presiding, advisory, secretary). Some official positions may be
inherited.
A person who currently holds an office is referred to as an
incumbent.
Word history
The word
official as a
noun has been recorded since the
Middle English period, first seen in 1314. It comes from the
Old French official (12th century), from the
Latin officialis ("attendant to a magistrate, public official"), the noun use of the original
adjective officialis ("of or belonging to duty, service, or office") from
officium ("office"). The meaning "person in charge of some public work or duty" was first recorded in 1555. The adjective is first attested in English in 1533, via the Old French
oficial.
The informal term
officialese, the
jargon of "officialdom," was first recorded in 1884.
Uses of the noun
In Roman Antiquity
An
officialis (plural
officiales) was the official term (somewhat comparable to a modern civil servant) for any member of the
officium (staff) of a high dignitary such as a governor.
Ecclesiastical judiciary
In
Canon law, the word or its Latin original
officialis is used absolutely as the legal title of a diocesan bishop's judicial
vicar who shares the bishop's
ordinary judicial power over the diocese and presides over the diocesan
ecclesiastical court.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law gives precedence to the title
Judicial Vicar, rather than that of Officialis (canon 1420). The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches uses only the title Judicial Vicar (canon 191).
In German, the related noun
Offizialat was also used for an official bureau in a diocese that did much of its administration, comprising the
vicariate-general, an adjoined secretariat, a registry office and a chancery.
The title of
official principal, together with that of
vicar-general, has in Anglicanism? England been merged in that of
Diocesan chancellor of a diocese.
Other officials
In
sports, the term official is used to describe a person enforcing playing in the capacity of a
linesman,
referee and
umpire; also specified by the discipline, e.g.
American football official,
Ice hockey official.
The term
officer is close to being a synonym (but has more military
connotations). A
functionary is someone who carries out a particular role within an organization; this again is quite a close synonym for
official, as a
noun, but with connotations closer to
bureaucrat. Any such person acts in their
official capacity, in carrying out the duties of their office; they are also said to
officiate, for example in a
ceremony. A
public official is an official of central or local
government.
Max Weber on bureaucratic officials
Max Weber gave as definition of a bureaucratic official :
- he is personally free and appointed to his position on the basis of conduct
- he exercises the authority delegated to him in accordance with impersonal rules, and his loyalty is enlisted on behalf of the faithful execution of his official duties
- his appointment and job placement are dependent upon his technical qualifications
- his administrative work is a full-time occupation
- his work is rewarded by a regular salary and prospects of advancement in a lifetime career.
An official must exercise his judgment and his skills, but his duty is to place these at the service of a higher authority; ultimately he is responsible only for the impartial execution of assigned tasks and must sacrifice his personal judgment if it runs counter to his official duties.
Official as an adjective
As an
adjective,
official often but not always means pertaining to the government, either as state employee or having state recognition, or to analogous governance, or to formal (especially legally regulated) proceeding as opposed to informal business. Some examples:
- An official holiday is a public holiday, having national (or regional) recognition.
- An official language is a language recognised by a government, for its own use in administration, or for the use of citizens (for example on signposts).
- An official spokesperson would be an individual empowered to speak for the government, or some part of it such as a ministry, on a range of issues and on the record for the media.
- An official statement is issued by an organisation as an expression of its corporate position or opinion; an official apology is an apology similarly issued by an organisation (as opposed to an apology by an individual).
- Official policy is policy publicly acknowledged and defended by an organisation. In these cases unofficial is an antonym, and variously may mean informal, unrecognised, personal or unacknowledged.
- An official strike is a strike organised and recognised by a labour union, as opposed to an unofficial strike at grassroots level.
- An official school is a school administered by the government or by a local authority, as opposite to a private school or religious school.
- An official history, for example of an institution or business, or particularly of a war or military unit, is a history written as a commission, with the assumption of co-operation with access to records and archives; but without necessarily full editorial independence.
- An official biography is usually on the same lines, written with access to private papers and the support of the family of the subject.
See also
Sources and references
(incomplete)
In politics, a mandate is the authority granted by an electorate to act as its representative. Elections are often said to give the newly elected government or elected official a mandate to implement certain policies.
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An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organisation with specific duties attached to it (see hi officer, office-holder, official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the
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An organization (or organisation — see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment.
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government is a body that has the power to make and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.[1]
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authority (Latin auctoritas, used in Roman law as opposed to potestas and imperium) is often used interchangeably with the term "power". However, their meanings differ: while "power" refers to the ability to achieve certain ends, "authority" refers to the
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Public Administration can be broadly described as the development, implementation and study of government policy. Public Administration is linked to pursuing the public good by enhancing civil society and social justice.
..... Click the link for more information. An election is a decision making process where people choose people to hold official offices. This is the usual mechanism by which modern democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government.
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Appointment may refer to a number of things, including the following:
- An appointment is a time reserved for something such as a doctor visit, much like a reservation.
..... Click the link for more information. Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has
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bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy, usually within an institution of the government.
The term "bureaucrat" today has largely accepted negative connotations, so those who are the members of a governmental bureaucracy usually prefer terms such as civil servant or
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Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity, usually in large organizations and government. It is characterized by standardized procedure (rule-following), formal division of responsibility, hierarchy, and impersonal relationships.
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Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an extremely important role in human societies.
Both anthropology and sociology have made detailed studies in this area.
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incumbent, in politics, is the current holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W.
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Examples
A proper or common noun can co-occur with an article or an attributive adjective. Verbs and adjectives can't. As usual, a `*' in front of an example means that this example is ungrammatical.
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Middle English}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: enm
ISO 639-3: enm
Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066
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Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories corresponding roughly to the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300.
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Latin}}}
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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In grammar, an
adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjective's
subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to.
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This article has been tagged since September 2007.
..... Click the link for more information. Officium (plural officia) is a Latin word with various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", "(sense of) duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like. It also translates the Greek kathekon and was used in later Latin to render more modern offices.
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Canon Law, the ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. The academic degrees in canon law are the J.C.B.
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vicar (from the Latin vicarius) is anyone acting "in the person of" or for a superior (compare "vicarious"). In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant.
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ordinary is an officer of the church who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute the church's laws[1]. The term comes from the Latin word ordinarius.
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worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.
An
ecclesiastical court (also called "Court Christian" or "Court Spiritual") is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters.
..... Click the link for more information. In the Roman Catholic Church, a judicial vicar is an officer of the diocese who has ordinary power to judge cases in the diocesan ecclesiastical court. Although the diocesan bishop can reserve certain cases to himself, the judicial vicar and the diocesan bishop are a single
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A vicar general (often abbreviated VG) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese.
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A vicar general (often abbreviated VG) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese.
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A diocesan chancery is the branch of administration which handles all written documents used in the official government of a Catholic diocese. It is in the diocesan chancery that, under the direction of the bishop or his representative, all documents which concern the diocese are
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Lineman or
linesman may refer to:
- Lineman (occupation), one who installs and maintains electrical, telephone, and/or telegraph lines
- Wichita Lineman
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