CONSTITUENT

I. noun Etymology: French constituant, from Middle French, from present participle of constituer to constitute, from Latin constituere Date: 1622 one who authorizes another to act as agent ; principal , a member of a constituency, an essential part ; component , element , a structural unit of a definable syntactic, semantic, or phonological category that consists of one or more linguistic elements (as words, morphemes, or features) and that can occur as a component of a larger construction, see: element II. adjective Etymology: Latin ~-, constituens, present participle of constituere Date: 1660 serving to form, compose, or make up a unit or whole ; component , having the power to create a government or frame or amend a constitution , ~ly adverb