superdelegaten.
/ˈsuːpəˌdɛlᵻɡət/, /ˈsjuːpəˌdɛlᵻɡət/, U.S. /ˈsupərˌdɛləɡət/ Chiefly U.S.
1. A superior or higher-ranking delegate.
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1920 Everybody's Mag. Nov. 86/2 The morning session was over;..the wide verandas were thick with speakers, committeemen, delegates, super-delegates and reporters.
1933 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 16 July iii. 8/2 Those cables depicted Moley as coming over here as the super-delegate—the man with the last word from Mount Sinai.
1981 Washington Post 23 July a1 The tone of the debate was reflected in the speech of a railway worker who got up to complain about what he described as ‘the system of delegates and superdelegates, of mandates and supermandates’.
2. U.S. Politics. An unelected delegate who is free to support any candidate for the presidential nomination at a party's national convention, rather than being bound by the results of a primary or caucus.Originally used esp. to denote Democratic delegates of this type.
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1981 Washington Post 8 Nov. 15/4 Fife, a reform Democrat from New York, said, ‘I'm opposed to having these super-status, super-delegates come in and pick our nominee.’
1992 J. Didion After Henry 79 One uncommitted superdelegate..said the Dukakis campaign had changed its message since Mr. Dukakis lost the Illinois primary.
2008 Independent 24 Apr. 27/1 What if you are a superdelegate headed for the party convention in Denver this August who has never even voted in a federal election before?
2012 Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) (Nexis) 4 Mar. a4 Romney has weak lead among GOP superdelegates.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1920