Ambtenaar Louis Dusée Zwaansteeg Utrecht v2

An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their superior and/or employer, public or legally private). An elected official is a person who is an official by virtue of an

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

. 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 The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

. Something "official" refers to something endowed with governmental or other authoritative recognition or mandate, as in

official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

official gazette A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establis ...

, or

official scorer In the game of baseball, the official scorer is a person appointed by the league to record the events on the field, and to send the official scoring record of the game back to the league offices. In addition to recording the events on the field ...

Etymology

The word ''official'' as a

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

has been recorded since the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

period, first seen in 1314. It comes from the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intellig ...

''official'' (12th century), from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''officialis'' ("attendant to a magistrate, government official"), the noun use of the original

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...

''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 '. The informal term ''officialese'', the jargon of "officialdom", was first recorded in 1884.

Roman antiquity

An ''officialis'' (

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

''officiales'') was the official term (somewhat comparable to a modern civil servant) for any member of the Officium (Ancient Rome), officium (staff) of a high dignitary such as a governor.

Ecclesiastical judiciary

In Canon law (Catholic Church), 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 (Catholic Church), 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 vicar general, vicariate-general, an adjoined secretariat, a registry office and a chancery. In Catholicism, the vicar-general was originally called the "official" (''officialis''). The title of official principal, together with that of vicar-general, has in Anglicanism been merged in that of Diocesan chancellor of a diocese.

Sports

In sports, the term official is used to describe a person enforcing playing wiktionary:rule, rules in the capacity of a Assistant referee (association football), linesman, referee and umpire; also specified by the discipline, e.g. American football official, ice hockey official. An official competition is created or recognized as valid by the competent body, is agreed to or arranged by people in positions of authority. Is synonymous, among others, with approved, certified, recognized, endorsed, legitimate.

Other

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

, 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: *they are personally free and appointed to their position on the basis of conduct *he exercises the authority delegated to them in accordance with impersonal rules, and their loyalty is enlisted on behalf of the faithful execution of their official duties *their appointment and job placement are dependent upon their technical qualifications *their administrative work is a full-time occupation *their work is rewarded by a regular salary and prospects of advancement in a lifetime career. An official must exercise their judgment and their skills, but their duty is to place these at the service of a higher authority; ultimately they are responsible only for the impartial execution of assigned tasks and must sacrifice their personal judgment if it runs counter to their official duties.

Adjective

As an

, "official" often, but not always, means pertaining to the government, as state employee or having state recognition, or analogous to governance or to a formal (especially legally regulated) proceeding as opposed to informal business. In summary that has authenticity emanates from an authority. Some examples: *An ''official holiday'' is a public holiday, having national (or regional) recognition. *An

is a language recognised by a government, for its own use in administration, or for delivering services to its citizens (for example, on signposts). *An ''official spokesperson'' is an individual empowered to speak for the government, or some part of it such as a Ministry (government department), ministry, on a range of issues and on the record for the Mass media, media. *An ''official statement'' is an 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 action, 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 Parochial school, 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.