syndic

Etymology

, De Staalmeesters (The Sampling Officials) or De waardijns van het Amsterdamse lakenbereidersgilde (Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild, 1662), which depicts officials of the Drapers’ Guild of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, elected to assess the quality of cloth offered by weavers for sale to guild members.]] Borrowed from French syndic (“delegated representative; a chief magistrate of Geneva; a censor; critic (obsolete)”), from Late Latin syndicus (“representative of a corporation or town, syndic”), from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate of a defendant”), from σῠν- (sun-, prefix meaning ‘together, with’) + δῐ́κη (díkē, “law, order; right; judgment; justice; lawsuit; trial”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to point out”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns).

noun

1. (government) A government official having different duties depending on the country; also, a magistrate, especially one of the Chief Magistrates of Geneva, Switzerland.
   [T]he two Syndicks and the reſt of the Magiſtrates of that City began to pry more narrowly into their ſtay, and more neerely into their actions; […] 1640, John Reynolds, “History XVII”, in The Triumphs of Gods Revenge against the Crying and Execrable Sinne of (Wilfull and Premeditated) Murther.[…], 2nd edition, London: […] Edward Griffin for William Lee,[…], →OCLC, book IV, page 269
   This City is govern'd by a Syndick and Twenty Five Senators, who meet every Day to conſult about the Affairs of the Commonwealth, and to decide all Cauſes, whether Criminal or Civil. 1694, [Giovanni Paolo Marana], “Letter I. To Hamet, Reis Effendi, Principal Secretary of the Ottoman Empire.”, in [Daniel Saltmarsh], transl., The Eighth and Last Volume of Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy, Who Liv’d Five and Forty Years Undiscover’d at Paris:[…], volume VIII, London: […] J. R. for J. Hindmarsh and R. Sare,[…], →OCLC, book IV, page 232
   To-morrow, after the midday prayer, mount an ass and make for the Habbānīyah quarter and there inquire for the house of the syndic Barakah, known as Abū Shāmah. 1923, J[oseph] C[harles] Mardrus, “The Tale of the Christian Broker”, in [Edward] Powys Mathers, transl., The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night[…], London: Routledge & Kegal Paul[…], published 1956, →OCLC, page 253
2. (chiefly Britain) An agent of a corporation, or of any body of people engaged in a business enterprise; specifically, in the University of Cambridge, a member of the senate appointed to carry out specific duties.
   In France, syndics are appointed by the creditors of a bankrupt to manage the property.
   The University of Cambridge has syndics who are chosen from the senate to transact special business, such as the regulation of fees and the framing of laws.