locum tenens

English

Etymology

Existing in English since the seventeenth century: from Medieval Latin locum tenens (literally “one holding a place”). Doublet of lieutenant.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌləʊkəm ˈtɛnɛns/

Noun

locum tenens (plural locum tenentes or locos tenentes)

1. A professional person (such as a doctor or clergyman) who temporarily fulfills the duties of another.
   • 1820, The Steeliad, a Poem, in Three Cantos, page 35:

     […] who speedily installed his Son […] into the office of Collector of Taxes, as a warming-pan, or locum tenens, till his Father-in-Law's twelvemonths of mock-heroic dignity had expired—or he should think proper to resume the Collectorship.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "I expected better things of you, Professor Summerlee." "You must remember," said Summerlee, sourly, "that I have a large class in London who are at present at the mercy of an extremely inefficient locum tenens."

Synonyms

Synonyms

• locum (abbreviation; UK, informal)
• proxy
• stand-in

Related terms

• locum
• locus
• tenant

Translations

someone who temporarily fulfills the duties of another

• Danish: stedfortræder (da) c
• German: Stellvertreter (de) m, Vertretungsperson f, Vertreter (de) m
• Icelandic: staðgengill (is) m