relegate

English

WOTD – 6 January 2012

Etymology 1

First attested in 1561, borrowed from Latin relēgātus, the past participle of relēgō (“to dispatch, banish”).

Alternative forms

• religate [17th century]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: rĕʹlĭgāt, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛlɪɡeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

relegate (third-person singular simple present relegates, present participle relegating, simple past and past participle relegated)

1. Exile, banish, remove, or send away.
   1. (transitive, done to a person) Exile or banish to a particular place.
   2. (reflexive, obsolete, rare) Remove (oneself) to a distance from something or somewhere.
   3. (transitive, historical, Ancient Rome, done to a person) Banish from proximity to Rome for a set time; compare relegate.
      • 2002, Mark Morford, The Roman Philosophers, →ISBN, page 183:

        Eventually his freedom of speech drove Vespasian to relegate him a second time, and shortly after he was executed […] .

   4. (transitive, figuratively) Remove or send to a place far away.
2. (transitive, in extended use) Consign or assign.
   1. Consign (a person or thing) to a place, position, or role of obscurity, insignificance, oblivion, lower rank or (especially) inferiority.

      Her bright ideas were relegated to "tosh" by her manager.

      • 1946 November and December, “A Veteran French Tank Engine”, in Railway Magazine, page 382:

        Our correspondent adds that, when he visited Rouen in 1910, the engine had been relegated to the shuttle service between Rouen (Rive Droite) and Rouen (Rive Gauche).

      • 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57:

        A Class 158 relegated from express duties turns up to transport me via the flower-bedecked Brighouse station to the trans-Pennine main line at Bradley Junction and onwards to Huddersfield.

   2. Assign (a thing) to an appropriate place or situation based on appraisal or classification.
   3. (sports, chiefly soccer) Transfer (a sports team) to a lower-ranking league division.

      Antonym: promote

      After finishing second-bottom in the table, United were relegated from the division.

3. (transitive) Refer or submit.
   1. Refer (a point of contention) to an authority in deference to the judgment thereof.
   2. Submit (something) to someone else for appropriate action thereby; compare delegate.
   3. (now rare) Submit or refer (someone) to someone or something else for some reason or purpose.

Derived terms

• relegated, relegating

Related terms

• relegation

Translations

to exile

• Bulgarian: отпращам (bg) (otpraštam)
• Dutch: bannen (nl), verbannen (nl), relegeren
• Finnish: karkottaa (fi)
• French: reléguer (fr)
• German: verbannen (de), fortschicken (de), absetzen (de), relegieren (de)
• Japanese: 追い払う (ja) (oiharau)
• Maori: tū(w)hiti, whakapako
• Russian: ссылать (ru) (ssylatʹ), изгонять (ru) (izgonjatʹ), отстранять (ru) (otstranjatʹ), отдалять (ru) (otdaljatʹ)
• Spanish: relegar (es)

to consign

• Bulgarian: разжалвам (bg) (razžalvam)
• Finnish: alentaa (fi), sijoittaa (fi)
• German: zurückstufen (de), herabsetzen (de), degradieren (de), zurückversetzen (de), herabstufen (de), absteigen lassen, einstufen (de), zuweisen (de)
• Japanese: 格下げする (ja) (kakusage suru), 降格させる (ja) (kōkaku saseru)
• Norwegian: degradere
• Russian: низводить (ru) (nizvoditʹ), разжаловать (ru) (razžalovatʹ), относить (ru) (otnositʹ) (к классу либо месту)

to refer

• Bulgarian: препращам (bg) (prepraštam)
• Finnish: siirtää (fi)
• German: zuweisen (de)
• Russian: отсылать (ru) impf (otsylatʹ)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} reléguer (fr)
• Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} száműz (hu), ^{(please verify)} leminősít (hu)

References

• “relegate, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• “relegate, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (draft revision, March 2010)

Etymology 2

First attested circa 1550: from the Classical Latin relēgātus (“banished person, exile”), the nominative singular masculine substantive form of relēgātus, the past participle of relēgō (“to dispatch, banish”).

Alternative forms

• relagate [16th century]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: rĕʹlĭgət, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛlɪɡət/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

relegate (plural relegates)

1. (history, obsolete) A person who has been banished from proximity to Rome for a set time, but without losing his civil rights.

References

• “†ˈrelegate, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• “†relegate, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (draft revision, December 2009)

Etymology 3

First attested circa 1425: from the Classical Latin relēgātus, the perfect passive participle of relēgō (“I dispatch”, “I banish”).

Alternative forms

• relegat [15th century]
• religait (Scots, [16th century])

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: rĕʹlĭgət, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛlɪɡət/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Adjective

relegate (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Relegated; exiled.

References

• “†relegate, adj.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (draft revision, June 2010)

Anagrams

• regelate

Esperanto

Adverb

relegate

1. present adverbial passive participle of relegi

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /re.leˈɡa.te/
• Rhymes: -ate
• Hyphenation: re‧le‧gà‧te

Etymology 1

Verb

relegate

1. inflection of relegare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

relegate f pl

1. feminine plural of relegato

Latin

Verb

relēgāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of relēgō

Spanish

Verb

relegate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of relegar combined with te