constituent

Etymology

From Latin cōnstituēns, present participle of cōnstituō (“I establish”), from com- (“together”) + statuo (“I set, place, establish”); see statute or statue, and compare institute and restitute.

adj

1. being a part, or component of a whole
2. constitutive or constituting; (politics) authorized to make a constitution
   the Constituent Assembly
   A question of right arises between the constituent and representative body. 1769, Junius, letter on 19 December, 1769, (part of Letters of Junius)

noun

1. A part, or component of a whole
   We know how to bring these constituents together, and to cause them to form water. 1865, John Tyndall, The Constitution of the Universe, published 1869, page 11
2. A person or thing which constitutes, determines, or constructs
3. A resident of an area represented by an elected official, particularly in relation to that official.
   But the purported rise in violent videos online has led some MPs to campaign for courts to have more power to remove or block material on YouTube. The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online. April 19, 2012, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian
4. A voter who supports a (political) candidate; a supporter of a cause.
5. (law) One who appoints another to act for him as attorney in fact
6. (grammar) A functional element of a phrase or clause
   Thus, the postulation of a Noun Phrase constituent is justified on morphological grounds, since it is not obvious how we could describe the grammar of the genitive s inflection in English without saying that it's a Noun Phrase inflection. 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 65