agencyn.
/ˈeɪdʒ(ə)nsi/, U.S. /ˈeɪdʒənsi/ I. A person or organization acting on behalf of another, or providing a particular service.
1.
a. The process of acting as an agent (agent n.1 2); the position, role, or function of an agent, deputy, or representative; an instance of this. Now somewhat rare.In earliest use: ambassadorship, embassy.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > delegated authority > action or function of a delegate or deputy > [noun] > management on behalf of another or stewardship
bailliec1305
bailieshipc1375
dispensingc1380
dispensationc1384
dispending1388
procuracya1425
procuration1484
umboth1509
stewardship1526
proctorship1535
stewarding1548
bailiwick1550
farmership1551
factory1560
agency1600
bailiffwick1605
agentship1608
factorage1639
proctorage1641
oeconomacy1651
soliciting1663
stewartrya1763
factordom1888
1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xlv. 1203 Three delegat embassadours were sent unto him... But nothing was effected in this agencie or embassage [L. legatione].
1601 True Relation Faction begun at Wisbich 41 They found Fa. Weston exceeding loth to lay downe the scepter of his Agencie.
1650 J. Dury Reformed Librarie-keeper 21 In all publick Agencies, it is fit that som inspection should bee had over those that are intrusted therewith.
1732 J. Swift Proposal to pay off Debt of Nation in Considerations Two Bills (new ed.) 29 Content to live cheap in a worse Country, rather than be at the Charge of Exchange and Agencies.
1742 Further Rep. Comm. Secrecy Conduct Earl of Orford (House of Commons) 83 As soon as we received Notice of what had happened between the Deputies and Messieurs Merewether and Manning, we made an Alteration in our Agency.
1800 Marquess Wellesley Let. 30 Sept. in Select. Despatches (1877) 715 Foreigners generally deal directly with the natives, or with foreign houses of agency.
1871 E. Poste in tr. Gaius Institutionum Iuris Civilis iii. Comm. 350 In the contract of agency..the principal is called dominus or mandator.
1920 Times 18 Mar. 1/5 (advt.) Cologne firm wants to communicate with a first-class House with a view to taking up agency or sale on commission of articles of any trade.
2003 M. R. Freedland Personal Employment Contract ix. 495 A bank may conduct its business..through the agency of branch managers.
b. A business, body, or organization providing a particular service, or negotiating transactions on behalf of a person or group. Cf. agent n.1 2b.Often with modifying word specifying the service provided, as advertising, detective, employment, escort, letting, tourist agency, etc.: see the first element. Also (with capital initials) in the names of such businesses or organizations.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > selling > [noun] > selling by right of concession > establishment for
agency1760
1760 Biographia Britannica V. 3472 It [sc. Raleigh's Office of Address in Virginia] was intended to be in the capacity of an Agency, for all sorts of business.
1816 Rep. 26 Nov. in Amer. State Papers: Finance (1834) III. 343 To establish an agency in England, for the payment of the dividends upon such portion of the capital stock..as may be held by persons residing in Europe.
1882 Daily News 28 Aug. 8/7 (advt.) Ladies requiring English and Foreign Governesses..are invited to send particulars to the Governesses' Agency.
1882 Daily News 4 Sept. 6/3 General Foreign News (through Reuter's Agency).
1882 Daily News 14 Oct. 8/4 (advt.) Solicitor to a Debt Collecting and General Trades Protection Agency.
1934 B. Hughes One Egg 37 I'm planning to turn the advertising account over to a New York agency.
1994 P. Hobbs & M. Algar Free to Trav. x. 50 Services of a professional house sitter can be hired through an agency.
2011 Coventry Evening Tel. (Nexis) 22 Jan. 35 Police have warned parents and children of a..scam involving fake modelling agencies.
2. U.S. The position or office of an Indian agent; (concrete) the headquarters of such an agent; = Indian agency n. at Indian adj. and n. Compounds 1b(a). Cf. agent n.1 2c. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1707 S. Carolina Statutes at Large (1837) II. 314 I will neither directly nor indirectly trade with any Indian..during the time of my agency.
1784 Let. 21 May in T. Jefferson Writings (1894) III. 495 To the Southward it would be our interest to have an agency kept up with the Overhill Cherokees.
1824 in Public Statutes at Large U.S.A. (1856) IV. 25 It shall be the duty of each Indian agent to reside and keep his agency within, or near the territory claimed by the tribe or tribes of Indians for which he may be agent.
1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xiii. 198 We concluded we had better see the Creeks at home, and started afoot for the Agency.
1895 C. King Fort Frayne xvi. 228 Eleven o'clock came and..no further authority from the agency.
1967 T. W. Blackburn Good Day to Die 1 At camp they believed he had prudently ridden away from the Agency to avoid a chance meeting with soldiers.
2001 W. Roberts Powers Navajo Trading i. iii. 44 Traders initially supplied goods to an agency, as well as the Indians served by the agency, and thus were assured of good business.
3. U.S. colloquial. With the. Usually with capital initial. The Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. Cf. company n. 5e, bureau n. 2d.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > political police > [noun] > secret service or police > specific American
C.I.A.1951
company1953
agency1958
cousin1977
1958 H. H. Ransom Central Intelligence & National Security iv. 84 CIA Old Hands will say that the agency has no raison d'etre by and of itself.
1977 Time 7 Feb. 20/2 As CIA director he immediately began to demythologize the agency.
1991 Village Voice (N.Y.) 29 Jan. 25/2 Years with the Agency have taught George Bush to vent his anger on small targets.
2002 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 12 May i. 13/1 ‘I have a feeling that The Agency helped make him, filled his coffers’, said one former senior CIA official.
II. Action, capacity to act.
4. Ability or capacity to act or exert power; active working or operation; action, activity.In quot. 1606 as a count noun: an action, a force.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > [noun]
workOE
operationa1393
workmanshipc1400
actionc1405
act?a1425
workinga1425
activityc1485
executiona1530
play1548
workfulness1570
inworking1587
acting1605
agency1606
operancea1625
transaction1663
operancyc1811
outworking1846
mediacy1854
functioning1856
1606 E. Forset Compar. Disc. Bodies Nat. & Politique 86 Bold busie bodies that..thrust in;..their agencies being too daungerous, where [etc.].
1658 H. Slingsby Father's Legacy in Diary (1836) 208 Privacy..if your Hours in it are not well employed, may become as dangerous as a place of agency.
1697 J. Sergeant Solid Philos. 217 Which..has the truest Notion of Agency in it, without any Mixture of Patiency; because the Body moved cannot re-act upon it.
1754 J. Edwards Careful Enq. Freedom of Will i. v. 30 The moral Agency of the Supreme Being..differs in that Respect from the moral Agency of created intelligent Beings.
1830 S. T. Coleridge On Constit. Church & State 140 The State shall leave the largest portion of personal free agency to each of its citizens, that is compatible with the free agency of all.
1911 Pop. Sci. Monthly May 463 At certain stages of organic evolution consciousness appears as a kind of byproduct and has no agency in the life drama itself.
1994 L. Cochran & J. Laub Becoming Agent vi. 176 A model is..capable of inspiring a person, providing strong motivation to strive for more agency.
2005 R. Toor Pig & I (2009) viii. 179 This..fantasy of giving up agency, of being stripped of having to make hard choices.
5.
a. Action or intervention producing a particular effect; means, instrumentality, mediation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [noun]
ministration1495
moyena1578
ministry1581
agency1625
instrumentalness1632
instrumentality1646
instrumency1652
canal1722
instrumentation1841
1625 A. Darcie tr. W. Camden Hist. Elizabeth ii. 330 Queene Elizabeth..had by the Agencie of Killigrew [L. opera Killegraei], brought the Duke of Chastelraut, and the Earle of Huntley..to these Conditions.
1674 W. Lloyd Difference Church & Court of Rome 17 The Agency of the Romish Factors with the King of Spain, for the procuring a second Invasion of their Native Country.
1685 J. Flavell Πνευματολογια 41 This infection [sc. the soul by the body] is by way of Physical agency, as a rusty Scabbard infects and defiles a bright Sword.
a1733 D. Wilcox 64 Pract. Serm. (1744) I. 63 God employs his angels..in the world... Not that God needs the agency of any of his creatures, but for the honour of his majesty [etc.].
1785 T. Jefferson Let. 4 Sept. in Papers (1953) VIII. 473 To set our treaty with the pyratical states into motion through his agency.
1815 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. (ed. 2) xvi. 439 The geologists who exclude the agency of fire from the formation of rocks.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 175 A complete explanation and reconciliation were brought about by the agency of Gilbert Burnet.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species Introd. 3 Requiring the agency of certain insects to bring pollen from one flower to the other.
1921 Sci. Amer. Monthly Jan. 76/1 The disease [sc. bubonic plague] was carried from sick rats to man through the agency of fleas.
2009 P. Ackroyd Venice vii. xxii. 203 Does it [sc. Venice] exist, and survive, by the agency of some inner or intrinsic force?
b. Such action embodied or personified; a being or thing that acts to produce a particular effect or result. Cf. agent n.1 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [noun] > (a) means
keyOE
toolc1000
wherewithc1230
ministerc1380
meanc1390
instrumenta1425
organ?a1425
mesne1447
moyen1449
handlec1450
hackneya1500
receipta1500
operative1526
ingine1531
appliance1555
agent1579
matter1580
mids1581
wedge1581
wherewithal1583
shoeing-horn1587
engine1589
instrumental1598
Roaring Meg1598
procurement1601
organy1605
vehicle1615
vehiculuma1617
executioner1646
facility1652
operatory1660
instrumentality1663
expedient1665
agency1684
bladea1713
mechanic1924
mechanism1924
1684 R. Bovet Pandæmonium Advt. 239 Agencies above the reach of our comprehensions,..which surpass the strength, power, and capacity of the most robust Mortal.
1696 Bp. J. Williams Several Ways of Revalation 16 The Senses were therefore bound up..by a supernatural Agency.
1708 Brit. Apollo 24–29 Sept. Fearing the concurrence of an Infernal Agency, he wisely bid adieu to that suspected Art.
1786 S. Henley tr. W. Beckford Arabian Tale 36 An invisible agency arrested his progress [Fr. avoit été retenu comme par une main invisible].
1829 R. Southey Poet. Epist. to A. Cunningham in Poet. Wks. 725/1 And still Hooft and Antonides Are living agencies.
c1854 A. P. Stanley Sinai & Palestine (1858) i. 35 The agency by which the sea was dried up was ‘a strong east wind’.
1933 R. E. Jones et al. Fighting Tanks since 1916 179 Supporting smoke should be put down by suitable agencies so as to protect the tanks.
2010 A. Frey Brit. State Romanticism 10 An agency [sc. the state] that molds individuals and through them the nation as a whole.
6. Grammar. The fact or quality of being a grammatical agent (agent n.1 1c).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > [noun] > function word
particle1533
parcel1571
syncategorem1655
agency1778
empty word1854
symbolic1871
form-word1875
structural word1884
particule1889
pheme1906
structure word1925
function word1927
operator1938
logical word1940
keneme1950
rheme1953
functor1958
1778 N. B. Halhed Gram. Bengal Lang. iv. 138 All these modifications of the verb, together with nouns of agency,..are arranged by the Shanscrit grammarians in a separate chapter.
a1832 J. Bentham Ess. Logic in Wks. (1843) VIII. 228/2 Not but that in the intransitive verb agency is expressed; but in this case so is passion, or say, to avoid ambiguity, patiency.
1910 W. H. Fraser & W. H. van der Smissen German Gram. for Schools & Colleges 199 This form of the passive..is never used when agency is expressed or implied.
1984 Language 60 551 The -an syllable..should be the easiest to identify, and then to use to indicate agency.
2012 R. Scollon et al. Intercultural Communication (ed. 3) vi. 131 In English and most other languages we have quite a number of ways in which ‘agency’ can be expressed.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive in sense 1, as agency business, agency contract, agency work, etc.
ΚΠ
1763 Crit. Rev. Oct. 264 Being himself interested in shipping, insurancing and agency-business in the public funds.
1843 Documents accompanying Jrnl. Senate Mich. 72 The following are the principal provisions of the agency contract.
1893 Jrnl. Inst. Actuaries 31 21 Local centres from which the agency system of particular districts can be most easily reached.
1919 Printers' Ink 3 Apr. 164/1 (advt.) Copy-Writer, account executive, ten years' agency experience.
1967 Advertising Age 24 July 67 Agency head Lester Wunderman..believes the answer is..what he terms ‘direct marketing’.
1991 Vermont May 29/2 The New Yorker had sent him to schmooze with the magazine's advertisers and agency people.
2004 World Soccer Dec. 30/4 During the 1980s he edged out of journalism into agency work.
b.
agency nurse n.
ΚΠ
1935 Milbank Memorial Fund Q. 13 269 (table) Health Department nurses... Henry Street nurses... Other agency nurses.
1979 G. Mercer Employment of Nurses iii. 90 (note) Some..become agency nurses and are then asked to work in the NHS.
2006 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) 8 Oct. 7/2 A plea for registered agency nurses to fill 41 vacancies at 13 hospitals.
agency staff n.
ΚΠ
1856 Railway Rec. 19 Apr. 249/2 No similar institution possesses an agency staff..better calculated to extend the business of the company in their several districts.
1868 Western Temperance Herald 1 Sept. 132/1 Other arrangements will shortly be made, so as to insure an agency staff, adequate to the requirements of our extended district.
1940 P. Atwater Probl. of Admin. in Social Work ii. 33 It is a splendid thing to invite other executives, supervisors, and professional workers to meet with the agency staff.
1999 Independent 9 Nov. ii. 2/2 Your article implied that agency staff are not entitled to join a union. That is not so.
C2. General attributive in sense 2, as agency building, agency store, etc. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1806 National Intelligencer & Washington Advertiser 20 Jan. A hatter's shop is established at the agency house by Nimrod Doyle... Some Indian lads have promised to apply to him for instruction.
1873 J. H. Beadle Undeveloped West xxv. 527 The last grain in the Agency storehouse was issued to them on the 14th.
1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xvi. 249 The band..unite in the quadrangle inclosed by the Agency buildings.
1901 S. E. White Westerners viii. 57 Rain-in-the-Face was at once an agency Indian and a reckless man.
2007 T. Rees Arc Med. Line iv. 102 By the mid-1850s..the Sioux had become entirely dependent on treaty payments and agency stores.
C3.
agency broker n. Stock Market a broker or firm of brokers acting on commission as an intermediary between clients and dealers or (more recently) market-makers.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > [noun] > dealer in stocks and shares > stock-broker > type of
agency broker1827
short1849
shunter1888
taker1899
coulissier1910
1827 Atlas 24 June 389/3 Mr. Pollock, an agency broker in the City.
1899 Morning Post 5 July 8/4 Fry and Co. as manufacturers' representatives and agency brokers.
1910 Northwestern Reporter 127 1101/2 The tendency..is to lower the business standard of an agency broker and to permit a broker's commission to become a mere matter of plunder.
1986 Times 14 Nov. 27/6 These are difficult times for agency brokers.
2011 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 16 Mar. (Business section) b7 Rosenblatt Securities, an agency broker that does a lot of research on market structure.
agency broking n. Stock Market the process or practice of acting as an agency broker.
ΚΠ
1984 Stock Exchange Q. Sept. 14/1 A number of broking firms are apprehensive about the viability of pure agency broking in a competing market maker system.
2004 Times (Nexis) 6 Nov. 65 Making money out of agency broking is not the easiest of things to do.
agency shop n. chiefly U.S. a system whereby a recognized trade union receives a sum of money from non-members equivalent to the subscriptions of members, in recognition of the collective bargaining done by the union on non-members' behalf; a place of work operating this system (cf. union shop n. at union n.2 Compounds 3); also attributive, as agency shop agreement, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun] > trade union > system not requiring union membership
agency shop1949
1949 Wisconsin State Jrnl. 4 Apr. 2/1 Government labor experts suggested legalizing the so-called ‘agency shop’ which does not force a worker to join a union but does require him to pay his fair share of the cost of negotiating..union contracts.
1963 Economist 27 Apr. 326/1 The Douglas Aircraft Corporation..broke ranks and agreed to an ‘agency shop’.
1971 Mod. Law Rev. 34 vi. 660 Only a registered union can be a party to a valid agency-shop agreement.
2011 Providence (Rhode Island) Jrnl. (Nexis) 3 Apr. 11 It reminds every teacher that this is a vocation, not an agency shop.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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