ombudsman
English
/ˈɒmbədzmən/, /ˈɑmbədzmən/, /ɔmˈbʊdzmən/
noun
Definitions
- An appointed official whose duty is to investigate complaints, generally on behalf of individuals such as consumers or taxpayers, against institutions such as companies and government departments.
- A designated internal mediator in an organization whose duty is to assist members with conflict resolution and other problems and to serve as an independent consultant to recommend changes to policies or procedures to improve organization effectiveness, efficiency, and humaneness.
Etymology
Borrowed from Swedish ombudsman derived from Old Norse umboðsmaðr (steward, a representative, ombudsman, an attorney, commissary, an ombudsman).
Origin
Old Norse
umboðsmaðr
Gloss
steward, a representative, ombudsman, an attorney, commissary, an ombudsman
Timeline
Distribution of cognates by language
Geogrpahic distribution of cognates
Cognates and derived terms
- ombudsmanry English
- ombudsmanship English
- Ombudsmann German
- ombudsman Dutch, Flemish
- ombudsman French
- омбудсмен Russian
- ombudsmann Norwegian Bokmål
- ombudsman Portuguese
- barnombudsman Swedish
- justitieombudsman Swedish
- konsumentombudsman Swedish
- man Swedish
- ombud Swedish
- ombudsman Swedish
- pressombudsman Swedish
- ombudsman Polish
- maðr Old Norse
- umboð Old Norse
- umboðsmaðr Old Norse
- ombudsmand Danish
- ombudsman Czech
- ombudsman Serbo-Croatian
- омбудсман Serbo-Croatian
- umboðsmaður Icelandic
- ombudsman Romanian, Moldavian, Moldovan
- ombudsman Cebuano
- ombudsman Turkish
- umboðsmaður Faroese
- омбудсман Bulgarian
- ომბუდსმენი Georgian
- омбудсман Macedonian