legate

From late Old English, from Old French legat, from Latin legatus (nominal use of perfect passive participle of lego (“bequeath, send as envoy”)).

legate (plural legates)

A deputy representing the pope, specifically a papal ambassador sent on special ecclesiastical missions.
An ambassador or messenger.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene i:
  Moſt great and puiſant Monarke of the earth,
  Your Baſſoe wil accompliſh your beheſt:
  And ſhew your pleaſure to the Perſean,
  As fits the Legate of the ſtately Turke.
- 1965, John Fowles, The Magus:
  The dark figure on the raised white terrace; legate of the sun facing the sun; the most ancient royal power.
The deputy of a provincial governor or general in ancient Rome.
- 1911, Rudyard Kipling, “The Roman Centurion’s Song”, in The History of England:
  Legate, I had the news last night—my cohort ordered home
  By ships to Portus Itius and thence by road to Rome.

deputy representing the pope

ambassador or messenger

deputy of a provincial governor or general in ancient Rome

legate (third-person singular simple present legates, present participle legating, simple past and past participle legated)

English