noun
candidate
A person being considered for a job, office, award, or other selection.
Where it comes from
Candidate ordinarily means a person being considered for a job, office, award, or other selection. Latin candidatus named a person seeking office and meant dressed in white. Roman candidates were associated with a brightened white toga; candidatus came from candidus, bright or white. The political hopeful became any person under consideration for a role, honor, treatment, or degree.
How the meaning developed
Candidate and candid still share that family of brightness.
Sources
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-10-05. Report a correction.