OMBUDSMAN: 1: a government official who investigates complaints against public officials 2: one who investigates reported complaints (as from students or consumers)
"Ombudsmand" was borrowed from Swedish, where it means "representative," and ultimately derives from the Old Norse words umboth ("commission") and mathr ("man"). In the early 1800s, Sweden became the first country to apoint an independent official known as an ombudsman to investigate complaints against government officials and agencies. Since then, other countries (such as Finlan, Denmark, and New Zealand), as well as some U.S. states, have appointed similar officials. The world "ombudsman" was first used in English in the late 1950s; by the 1960s, it was also being used to refer to a person who reviews complaints against an organization (such as a school or hospital) or to someone who enforces standards of journalistic ethics at a newspaper.
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