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I am trying to find the correct opposite of a delegate in the context of a person being a representative of someone else that have allowed or chosen them to be their delegate.
What would you call that "someone else?"
The only word I could find is a delegator (which isn't a real word in English) or assigner, but they are technical words rather than descriptive.

Any other word I could use?

Think of it in a sentence like this:

Here is a list of all the delegates in the company.
But that is the list of their _ _ _ _ _ (what can go here?).

I am trying to avoid fillers such as: bosses, agents, managers, etc.

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    "Delegator" is a word, but I suspect that it is exceedingly obscure legal jargon. I'm sorry, I really cannot think of a solution. I should think that it is usually not necessary to list the people in a company that have delegates, since having a delegate is not really a task or a job, so that is perhaps why there is no word. But that doesn't help you. May I ask what you need it for? With more context we have a wider scope to search for solutions.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Dec 31, 2010 at 2:07
  • @Cerberus -- I am trying to make relational database of employees and their delegates, where I was stumped coming up with a name for one of the columns. It is always essential to come up with elegant, descriptive names for columns and tables in a database -- makes it easier for yourself and others at a later time.
    – BeemerGuy
    Dec 31, 2010 at 2:19
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    Ah OK, it does make sense in that context. I will think about it - let's hope others more experienced will too. In fact, if you are using it in a database anyway, not in a formal report, why not blow some life into "delegator"? - unless someone comes up with a better term.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Dec 31, 2010 at 2:21
  • Wiktionary has delegator en.wiktionary.org/wiki/delegator
    – shinynewbike
    Dec 31, 2010 at 10:55
  • "employees and their delegates" I think either you have misunderstood "delegates", BeemerGuy, or it is used in British business contexts differently than in the US (I speak American English). Managers can delegate tasks to the employees or staff they manage, but these employees are not typically called "delegates" when they have been assigned a task. A delegate is a representative, someone sent to do something on another's behalf. A manager is said to have "direct reports" (those who report directly to him|her) and "indirect reports" (those who report those who report to him|her).
    – TimR
    Dec 16, 2014 at 18:25

3 Answers 3

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I think principal might work for you. It's used fairly frequently to describe the primary people involved in things and the following is listed as one of the (chiefly legal) definitions:

a person who authorizes another, as an agent, to represent him or her.

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In the context of elections, those who send a delegate are generally referred to as their constituents. That may be appropriate for this context.

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You could possibly toy with Executive and also Appointer

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