Official
An
official (from the Latin
Officialis, person – or object – related to an
officium, v., since the Romans the staff of a high office bearer such as a governor) is, in the primary sense, someone who holds an office (i.e. function, mandate, regardless whether it carries a working space with it) in an
organisation, of any kind, but participating in the exercise of authority (either his own or that of his superior and/or employer, public or legally private). An
elected official is a person who is an official by virtue of an
election; officials may also be appointed,
ex officio (i.e. by virtue of another office, often in a specified capacity, such as presiding, advisory, secretary), cooptated, or sometimes
hereditary.
Official as a noun is recorded in English since 1314, from Old French
official (12c.), from Latin
officialis "attendant to a magistrate, public official," noun use of the original adjective officialis "of or belonging to duty, service, or office," from officium ' office'. Meaning "person in charge of some public work or duty" first recorded 1555. The adjective is first attested in English in 1533, via Old French
oficial, again from officialis.
*
Officialese "language of officialdom" first recorded 1884.
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
chancellor of a diocese.
Other officials
In
sports, the term official is used to describe a person enforcing playing
rules 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 organisation; this again is quite a close synonym for
official, as a
noun, but with connotations closer to
bureaucrat and so sometimes mildly
pejorative in English usage. 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.
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 unacknowleged.
*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.
*
Coordinatorism is an economic system ruled not by the nominal owners but by a
new class of managers and officials.
*
(incomplete)
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Etymology OnLine*
Pauly-Wissowa
