Assignates

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. To allocate or designate specific tasks, roles, or responsibilities to someone or something; to distribute or apportion items, duties, or resources according to a plan or system; to officially set apart or assign a value or position
2. To designate particular functions or ownership to individuals or entities; to officially allocate or distribute something for a given purpose; to mark or note something as belonging to a specific category or group
3. To designate or allocate duties, rights, or resources for use or responsibility; to assign or set something in a defined place or category; to specify or determine an official status or position for someone or something

Etymology: The root of this word is a sign. Its ancestor is Latin "assignare," from "ad," meaning "to," and "signare," meaning "to mark," which comes from "signum," a sign or mark. To assign something was literally to mark it out for a particular person, so the idea of handing over a task began as a physical act of marking. Old French took the word as "assigner," meaning to allot or appoint, and English borrowed it from there. "Assignate" is a rarer, more Latinate form of the same verb, built on the same stem, so it carries the same core sense of setting something aside for someone. The "-es" ending on "assignates" is simply the plural of the noun, so the word names more than one person or thing that does the allotting or the task-giving. Its meaning follows directly from the verb's root: each is an instance of marking out work for someone else.

Synonyms: assignations, appointments, meetings, dates, engagements