(see below). Also 6 commytte, comyttie, -ittie, 6–7 committie, 7 committey, -itie, -itty, -itte, comittee. [Subst. use of late AFr. committe, committee pa. pple., substituted for F. commis, f. commettre to COMMIT: cf. words like appellee, in which the suffix repr. F. é of the pa. pple. of 1st conj.; also trustee.]
I. Applied to an individual.
† 1. A person to whom some charge, trust, or function is committed; a commissioner, commissary. Obs. exc. as in d.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 16. The Kinges Committees or his patentees for the kepyng of the seid Toun.
1523. Firzherb., Surv., 23. The garden or his commytte or graunte shall tende, and offre mariage to the warde.
1579. Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 547. The Bishop of Rome hath beene made the Committie of diuerse Councels, to receiue the subscription.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. iii. 133. The Comittie, or Purueyour generall, who hath charge to prouide all Bastiments, prouision, and other necessarie things.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XV. xcvi. 383. By great, by needy Mal-Contents, by Credulous, and Vitious, Work Romes Committees.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 331. Nicholas Wotton … thrise chosen a Committee about peace between the English, French, and Scotish.
1623. Cockeram, Committee, he to whom a matter is committed to be ordered or decided.
† b. One of a number of persons to whom a particular business is delegated; a member of a committee in sense 2. Obs.
1587. Harrison, England, II. viii. (1897), I. 178. The bill is put to certeine committees to be amended.
1618. Sir R. Naunton, in Fortesc. Papers, 73. Mr. Comptroller, one of our fellow Comittees.
1628. Coke, On Litt. (1809), vii. 11. These committees when they meet, they elect one of them to sit in the chair in likenesse of the speaker.
† c. The title of each of the 24 directors elected annually by the East India Company to manage its affairs. Obs.
1681. R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, Ep. Ded. To the … Four and Twenty Committees of the Honorable the East-Indin Company.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4216/3. A General Court … to declare the Choice of the Governour, Deputy, and 24 Committees.
1858. Beveridge, Hist. India, I. I. x. 228. The management was entrusted to seventeen directors, or, as they were then called, committees.
d. Court of Committees (of Guy’s Hospital): a court of 21 members, whose duties are the financial management of the Hospital, and the appointment of new Governors.
1725. Act 11 Geo. I. (Guy’s Hospital). The several persons herein-after named … are hereby declared to be the President, Treasurer, and one and twenty Committees of the said hereby erected Corporation.
1890. Printed Notice, Guy’s Hosp. Meetings of the Court of Committees will be held upon the following dates.
2. Law. A person to whom the charge of a lunatic or idiot is committed.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. viii. (R.). If he be found non compos, he [the Lord Chancellor] usually commits the care of his person … to some friend who is then called his committee.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, xvii. 118. The powers given by the Act … may be exercised by guardians for infants, by committees for lunatics.
1884. Times, 27 Oct., 4/5. She was the committee of the lunatic.
¶ 1607. Cowell, Interpr., s.v., says ‘This word seemeth to be something strangely used in Kitchin, fol. 160, where the widow of the kings tenant being dead, is called the committee of the king’: but Kitchin, Jurisd. (1598), has l.c. ‘et sa feme est committee le Roy,’ translated (1653, p. 314), ‘and his Wife is committed to the King.’
II. Applied to a body.
3. A body of (two or more) persons appointed or elected (by a society, corporation, public meeting, etc.) for some special business or function. (Cf. 1 b, which shows that each member was originally called a committee.)
Hence, in the usage of Parliament, or other legislative assemblies:
Committee of the whole House: the whole of the members sitting as a committee to consider the details of a measure that has been ‘committed,’ or for kindred purposes, as in the Committee of Supply, Committee of Ways and Means; hence the phrases to resolve itself into a Committee, to go into Committee, to be in Committee, etc. Select or Special Committee: one consisting of a small number of members, selected to investigate a special matter. Standing Committee: a permanent committee appointed to deal with all matters within a particular sphere, during the existence of the body appointing them. Joint Committee: one composed of members nominated by two or more distinct bodies, such as the Houses of Lords and Commons, in order to arrange the terms of joint action, adjust differences, etc.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (1870), 39. The wholl House a Comittee, the same being adjourned ad libitum.
1626. Meade, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 327. III. 225. The Commons having chosen a Committee of Eight … to deliver some fourteen Articles against him unto the Lords.
1640. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., 18 Dec. vi. 21. This grand Committee … did authorize a Sub-committee.
1643. Declar. conc. Ireland, 33. The examination of Colonell Audley Mervin given … unto a select committee of the House of Commons.
1675. Ogilby, Brit., Introd. 4. The East India Company … Regulated by a Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Committee of 24 Assistants.
1733. Swift, Legion Club. Let them form a grand committee, How to plague and starve the city.
1753. Scots Mag., Aug., 388/2. The house having resolved itself into a committee of the whole house upon the … bill.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 356. The subscribers met, and named a Committee of administration to regulate the expences.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xv. 143. In June 1689 a special committee was appointed to inquire into the miscarriages of the war in Ireland.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 552. The motion of the Marquis of Lansdowne for going into Committee on the Bill.
1871. Ruskin, Munera P., Pref. (1880), 11. I had the honour of being on the committee … for the victualling of Paris after her surrender.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lviii. 285. Many nights of discussion were occupied in committee.
† b. A meeting or session of such a body. Obs.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), p. xx. I was to go to Edinburgh to attend the committey of the Parliament.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 14 June. Away to White Hall to a Committee for Tangier; where the Duke of York was, and Sir W. Coventry, and a very full committee.
1712. E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 124. This Day a Committee was held.
1742. H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann, 22 Jan. I. 78. The night of the Committee, my brother had got invalids at his house.
III. attrib. and Comb., as committee chamber, day, meeting, room; † committee cut (see quot.); committee-man, a member of a committee.
1660. Trial Regic., 44. I was admitted into the *Committe-chamber.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 743. They mostly had short hair, which at this time was commonly called the *Committee cut.
1640–1. Kirkcudb. War-Comm. Min.-bk. (1855), 84. Johne Gordone … undertakes to produce his sone … at the next *Committie day.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 90. Truly the Carter and *Committee-man, must be fain to tast of the same kettle.
1663. Flagellum or O. Cromwell (1672), 31. The chief Committe-man of the Association.
1809. Kendall, Trav., I. v. 27. The deputies … were anciently called committee-men.
1883. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 123. My father is gone to a *committee meeting.
1772. Town & Country Mag., 93. Passing a *Committee-room, where only one member was holding a committee.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Committee v. trans., to furnish with a committee; Committeeing vbl. sb., the procedure of a committee; Committeeism.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), V. 39. Caballings and Committeeings.
1864. Reader, 23 Jan., 95. Mere encouragement of committeeism and private blatancy.
1889. Home Missionary (N. Y.), Dec., 372. They are officered and committeed from their own number.
