Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Syndicate
/ˈsɪndɪkət/noun
A group combining to run a business, an operation or a crime.
The Greek roots
σύν
sýn
with, together
δίκη
díkē
justice, lawsuit
Literally: “one who stands with you in court”
The story of the word
A sýndikos was the advocate who spoke for a community in court, and the office survived through Byzantine into Italian city government as sindaco, still the ordinary word for an Italian mayor. English acquired the body before the verb: a syndicate was a council of syndics, and Cambridge University runs its Press and its examinations through syndicates to this day. American crime reporting between the wars supplied the sense most people now hear first.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
syndicsyndrometheodicysynod
In a sentence
A syndicate of six insurers took the risk between them.