ombudsman: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

	Word of the Day for Thursday, October 18, 2012 ombudsman \OM-buhdz-muhn\, noun: A government official who hears and investigates complaints by private citizens against other officials or government agencies. Despite these common characteristics of ombudsman systems, there are significant variations across national contexts. The Swedish and Danish ombudsmen exemplify two different models. -- Bruce E. Cain, Russell J. Dalton, Susan E. Scarrow, Democracy Transformed? You have reached the Washington Sun's ombudsman desk. If you feel you have been inaccurately quoted, press one. If you spoke to a reporter off the record but were identified in the article, press two… -- Christopher Buckley, Thank You for Smoking Fate, or destiny, under God, is the poor man's omnipotent ombudsman. -- Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights Ombudsman comes from the Swedish word ombud which means "agent, attorney." It entered English in the 1910s. Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom? Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges Check out the Quote of the Day ›› Who put the extra $ in Ke$ha? Where did the $ come from? From the California dance band !!! to MIA spelling out her name in dashes, musical artists seem to love putting symbols in their names. Perhaps none more notable than pop star, Ke$ha who differentiates herself with a single letter substitution. Born Kesha Rose Sebert, the singer/songwriter/rapper simply exchanged the 's' in her first name with... Read more ›› Dictionary.com Word of the Day You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: manyanget@gmail.com Subscriber since: March 22, 2010 Unsubscribe from the Word of the Day To subscribe to the Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com ©2012 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Subscriptions to the Word of the Day can also be managed online   Tell a friend about the Word of the Day!