functionary

A person employed as an official in a bureaucracy (usually corporate or governmental) who holds limited authority and primarily serves to carry out a simple function for which discretion is minimal or not required.

Noun

  1. A person employed as an official in a bureaucracy (usually corporate or governmental) who holds limited authority and primarily serves to carry out a simple function for which discretion is minimal or not required.
    • Near-synonyms: bureaucrat; official; officer; administrator; apparatchik
    • Consciences are for politicians, Bernard! We are humble functionaries whose duty it is to implement the commands of our democratically elected representatives. - 1987 December 10, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “Official...

    Synonyms: bureaucrat official officer administrator apparatchik

  2. Such a person who is petty, pedantic, short-sighted, uncaring, or counterproductive; sometimes also with implication of being amoral or corrupt.
    • Near-synonyms: bureaucrat, apparatchik; paper-pusher; bean counter

    Synonyms: bureaucrat apparatchik paper-pusher bean counter

Origin

From French fonctionnaire; by surface analysis, function + -ary.

Forms

functionaries