Entrustment

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of assigning responsibility or care to someone for a particular task or possession
2. A formal delegation of trust and authority to another party regarding assets or decisions
3. The process of giving someone the duty to manage or oversee something valuable or significant

Etymology: Entrustment is a plain formation: the verb "entrust" with the suffix "-ment" added to it. The verb itself was built inside English from "en-", a prefix meaning "to put into or cause to be," joined to "trust." So the word is a trust placed into someone's keeping, given a noun form that names the act of handing it over. The suffix has a longer pedigree than the verb. "-ment" descends from the Latin "-mentum," which turned verbs into nouns naming an action or its result, and it reached English through Old French. Many English nouns ending in "-ment," such as "judgment" and "government," follow the same pattern.

Synonyms: trust, assignment, delegation