Syndicate comes from French syndicat which means trade union (syndic meaning administrator), from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος (syndikos) which means caretaker of an issue, compare to ombudsman or representative.

Crime syndicates

Mass media

In the mass media, a syndicate will offer work for syndication.

Finance

In finance, a group of banks lending, for a specific purpose and to one single borrower, a - mostly large - amount of money is referred to as a bank syndicate or often only as a syndicate.

In investment banking, refers to a group of investment banks that share underwriting risk in respect to an issuer's securities. Referred to as the underwriting syndicate.

Worker Managed Enterprise

Anarchists, syndicalists and other libertarian socialists use the word "syndicate" to refer to an enterprise democratically managed by its workers. Such an enterprises is governed by a face-to-face meeting of everyone who works there, in which each worker has one vote. Either there are no managers, or the managers are democratically elected and recallable. In either case, the most important decisions are made collectively by the whole workforce. This is known as workers' self-management.

Femdom syndicate

People who engage in BDSM often refer to a group of dominant females and their partners as a "femdom syndicate." Often these syndicates have their own offices, tattoos and identity cards.

See also

• Syndicalism
• Anarcho-syndicalism