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burocrato

bureaucrat

noun boo-ROH-krah-toh Rare
People & Society Government

Origin: From French bureaucrate, from bureau ('office') + Greek kratos ('power').

Usage Note

Burocrato almost always carries a pejorative flavour in Italian — it evokes a rigid, paper-pushing official more concerned with procedure than outcomes. The more standard form is burocrate (il/la burocrate). The related noun burocrazia ('bureaucracy') is famously blamed in Italian public discourse for slowing down almost everything.

Examples

"Quel burocrato ha bloccato la pratica per settimane."

Natural Translation

That bureaucrat held up the application for weeks.

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