- 1
A functionary is someone whose job is to carry out official duties — often the small, dull, paper-moving kind. The word is not kind. It does not mean a respected leader; it means a person inside an organisation who follows the rules and stamps the forms. Newspapers and rather cold, formal writing use it. You would not say it to a friend’s face. Though actually, the French word it comes from is a normal, neutral word for a government worker; English borrowed it and made it colder, almost a little mean. In English it often hints: this person has a title, but not much real power or spark.
小公務員（帶貶義，指做制式、無聊公務的人；不是中性的「公務員」。）
組成from French fonctionnaire; in English it looks like function + -ary (a person connected with that thing)
同家族的字
- functionthe official role or duty the person is there to carry out
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
functionarynoun/ˈfʌŋ(k).ʃn̩.(ə)ri/
- 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.
- 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
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。