Designation, from the Latin designatĭo, is the action and effect of designating. This verb refers to point out or allocate someone or something for an end, to indicate or to name. For example: “The appointment of the coach will take two or three more days, as confirmed by the president of the club”, “I am anxious for the appointment of the new head of the office”, “The governor announced the appointment of Roberto Patora as Minister of Environment”.
An appointment may refer to a position or position held by a person. When an authority designates a subject to assume a responsibility, it is granting him certain powers in a certain area. Appointments can occur at the government level or within a company.
Making use of the term that concerns us and closely related to this meaning set out last, we would have to refer to the concept of free designation. It is a procedure for granting jobs within the Public Administration that must be carried out, always previously fulfilling a series of mandatory steps as well as a set of requirements:
- There must be a report from the head of the center in which the corresponding job is found, which will include the names of the most appropriate candidates to occupy that job.
- Only career civil servants who belong to the same specialty as the former may opt for the aforementioned job.
- It is also important that the aforementioned officials who wish to hold that position present the corresponding candidacy so that they can be taken into account.
Designations can also be linked to the choice of something so that it acquires a certain category. Thus, one can speak of the designation of a city as the European Capital of Culture or the designation of an ancient church as a World Heritage Site. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to designation.
In a similar sense, the designation can be the nomination of a person to receive an award or to gain access to recognition: “The International Volleyball Federation announced the designation of Poh Jahn Liu as Best Player of the Season”, “The appointment of Michael Fanstein as a member of the honorary committee of the institution generated great controversy”.
In addition to all of the above, we would also have to clarify that the term in question is used within the industrial field. Thus, for example, it is stipulated that each and every one of the cables has a designation that conforms to a standard, which serves to identify them and which is made up of a set of numbers and letters.
Specifically, thanks to this alphanumeric combination, the person who has to buy a cable and has one before their eyes will be able to know aspects such as the commercial brand that has made it, the type of armor it has, the outer cover it has, its driver or the regulations that have been followed to create it.
For linguistics, designation is a function through which people and objects are referred to.