different between commission vs authority

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French commission, from Latin commissi? (“sending together; commission”), from prefix com- (“with”), + noun of action missi? (“sending”), from perfect passive participle missus (“sent”), from the verb mitt? (“to send”), + noun of action suffix -i?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??m???n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

commission (countable and uncountable, plural commissions)

1. A sending or mission (to do or accomplish something).
2. An official charge or authority to do something, often used of military officers.
3. The thing to be done as agent for another.

4. A body or group of people, officially tasked with carrying out a particular function.
   • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II

     A commission was at once appointed to examine into the matter.

   Synonyms: committee, government body

5. A fee charged by an agent or broker for carrying out a transaction.

   Hyponyms: (to a broker) brokerage, (to a shroff) shroffage

6. The act of committing (e.g. a crime).

   • Every commission of sin introduces into the soul a certain degree of hardness.

   Antonym: omission

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

commission (third-person singular simple present commissions, present participle commissioning, simple past and past participle commissioned)

1. (transitive) To send or officially charge someone or some group to do something.
   • 2012, August 1. Owen Gibson in Guardian Unlimited, London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal

     Stanning, who was commissioned from Sandhurst in 2008 and has served in Afghanistan, is not the first solider to bail out the organisers at these Games but will be among the most celebrated.

2. (transitive) To place an order for (often piece of art)

3. (transitive) To put into active service

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin commissio, commissionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.mi.sj??/

Noun

commission f (plural commissions)

1. commission (fee charged by an agent or broker for carrying out a transaction)

Derived terms

• Commission européenne

Descendants

• ? Persian: ???????? (komisiyon)
• ? Turkish: komisyon

Further reading

• “commission” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Alternative forms

• authourity, authoritie, autority, auctoritie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auctorite, autorite (“authority, book or quotation that settles an argument”), from Old French auctorité, from Latin stem of auct?rit?s (“invention, advice, opinion, influence, command”), from auctor (“master, leader, author”). For the presence of the h, compare the etymology of author.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???????ti/, /???????ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??????ti/, /??????ti/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /???t???ti/
• Hyphenation: au?thor?i?ty
• Rhymes: -???ti

Noun

authority (countable and uncountable, plural authorities)

1. (uncountable) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.

2. (used in singular or plural form) Persons in command; specifically, government.
3. (countable) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
   • 1930 September 18, Albert Einstein, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1988) by Banesh Hoffman

     To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

4. Government-owned agency which runs a revenue-generating activity.

   New York Port Authority

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• have something on good authority

References

• authority at OneLook Dictionary Search
• authority in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• authority in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.