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An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate
Mandate (politics)

In politics, a mandate is the authority granted by an electorate to act as its Representative democracy. Elections, especially ones with a large margin of victory, are often said to give the newly elected government or elected official a mandate to implement certain policies....
, regardless whether it carries an actual working space
Office

An office is generally a room or other area in which people employment, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty....
 with it) in an organisation or government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
 and participates in the exercise of authority
Authority

In government, authority 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 a claim of legitimacy , the justification and right to exercise that power....
 (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
Public administration

Public administration can be broadly described as the development, implementation and study of branches of government public policy. The pursuit of the public good by enhancing civil society and social justice is the ultimate goal of the field....
 or government, through either election
Election

An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
, appointment
Appointment

Appointment may refer to a number of things, including the following:*An appointment is a time reserved for something such as a Physician visit, much like a reservation....
, or employment
Employment

Employment is a contract between two party , 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 contract or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and Management the employee i...
.






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An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate
Mandate (politics)

In politics, a mandate is the authority granted by an electorate to act as its Representative democracy. Elections, especially ones with a large margin of victory, are often said to give the newly elected government or elected official a mandate to implement certain policies....
, regardless whether it carries an actual working space
Office

An office is generally a room or other area in which people employment, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty....
 with it) in an organisation or government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
 and participates in the exercise of authority
Authority

In government, authority 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 a claim of legitimacy , the justification and right to exercise that power....
 (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
Public administration

Public administration can be broadly described as the development, implementation and study of branches of government public policy. The pursuit of the public good by enhancing civil society and social justice is the ultimate goal of the field....
 or government, through either election
Election

An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
, appointment
Appointment

Appointment may refer to a number of things, including the following:*An appointment is a time reserved for something such as a Physician visit, much like a reservation....
, or employment
Employment

Employment is a contract between two party , 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 contract or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and Management the employee i...
. A bureaucrat
Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government....
 is a member of the bureaucracy
Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity, usually in large organizations and government. As opposed to adhocracy, it is represented by standardized procedure that dictates the execution of most or all processes within the body, formal division of powers, hierarchy, and relationships....
. 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
Inheritance

Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, Title s, debts, and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies....
.

A person who currently holds an office is referred to as an incumbent
Incumbent

The incumbent, in politics, is the 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....
.

The word official as a noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
 has been recorded since the Middle English
Middle English

Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman conquest of England of 1066 and about 1470, when the #Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William...
 period, first seen in 1314. It comes from the Old French
Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
 official (12th century), from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 officialis ("attendant to a magistrate, public official"), the noun use of the original adjective
Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
 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
Jargon

Jargon is terminology which has been especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, or group. In other words, the term covers the language used by people who work in a particular area or who have a common interest....
 of "officialdom," was first recorded in 1884.

Roman Antiquity

An officialis (plural officiales) was the official term (somewhat comparable to a modern civil servant) for any member of the officium
Officium

Officium is a Latin word with various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", " duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like. It also translates the Greek kathekon and was used in later Latin to render more modern offices....
 (staff) of a high dignitary such as a governor.

Ecclesiastical judiciary

In Canon law
Canon law (Catholic Church)

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 word or its Latin original officialis is used absolutely as the legal title of a diocesan bishop's judicial vicar
Vicar

In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, anyone acting "in the person of" or wiktionary:agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant, literally the "place-holder"....
 who shares the bishop's ordinary
Ordinary

In those hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ecclesiastical law system, an ordinary is an officer of the church who by reason of office has ordinary power to executive the church's laws....
 judicial power over the diocese and presides over the diocesan ecclesiastical court
Ecclesiastical court

Church CourtsAn ecclesiastical court is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages in many areas of Europe these courts had much wider powers than before the development of nation states....
.

The 1983 Code of Canon Law gives precedence to the title Judicial Vicar
Judicial vicar

In the Roman Catholic Church, a judicial vicar is an officer of the diocese who has ordinary to judge cases in the diocesan ecclesiastical court....
, 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
Vicar general

A vicar general 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 over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular church after the diocesan bishop....
, 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

In sports, the term official is used to describe a person enforcing playing rules in the capacity of a linesman, referee
Referee

A referee is a person who has authority to make decisions about play in many sports. Officials in various sports are known by a variety of titles, including: referee, umpire, judge, linesman, commissaire, timekeeper or touch judge....
 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 connotation
Connotation

Connotation is a Subjectivity culture and/or emotional coloration in addition to the explicit or denotation Meaning of any specific word or phrase in a...
s). 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
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
, but with connotations closer to bureaucrat
Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government....
. 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
Ceremony

A ceremony is an activity, infused with ritual significance, performed on a special occasion....
. A public official is an official of central or local government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
.

Max Weber on bureaucratic officials

Max Weber
Max Weber

Maximilian Carl Emil Weber was one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Germany, Weber became a lawyer, politician, scholar, political economy, and sociology....
 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.

Adjective

As an adjective
Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
, 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
    Official language

    An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration....
     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
    Ministry (government department)

    A ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of government public administration, sometimes led by a Political minister, but usually a Civil service, that can have responsibility for one or more departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions or other smaller executive, advisory, managerial or administrative organisations....
    , on a range of issues and on the record for the media
    Mass media

    Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a mainstream such as the population of a nation state....
    .
  • 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
    Strike action

    Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform labour . A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances....
     organised and recognised by a labour union, as opposed to an unofficial strike at grassroots level.
  • An official school is a school
    School

    File:Primary Student of Pakistan.JPGA school , is an institution designed to allow and encourage students to education, under the supervision of teachers....
     administered by the government or by a local authority, as opposite to a private school
    Private school

    Private schools, or independent schools, are schools not administered by local, state, or national government, which retain the right to select their student body and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students tuition rather than with public funds....
     or religious school.
  • An official history, for example of an institution or business, or particularly of a war
    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
    Editorial independence

    Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising customers....
    .
  • 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

  • Coordinatorism
    Coordinatorism

    Coordinatorism is a termed coined by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel to describe an economic system in which control is held neither by people who own Capital , nor by proletariat, but instead is held by an intervening class of coordinators, typically in the roles of managers, administrators, engineers, university intellectuals, doctors,...
     is an economic system ruled not by the nominal owners but by a new class
    New class

    The New Class is a term to describe the privileged ruling class of bureaucrats and Communist party functionaries which typically arises in a Stalinist communist state....
     of managers and officials
  • official trip


Sources and references

(incomplete)*
  • Pauly-Wissowa
    Pauly-Wissowa

    The Realencyclop?die der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, commonly called the Pauly-Wissowa or simply RE, is a German language encyclopedia of classical antiquity scholarship....