assign
v.v. to give someone a specific job or piece of work to do. You also use it to say that a particular value or place belongs to something.
v. to allocate a task or duty to a person; to designate a value, property, or position to an object or variable. Transitive — requires a direct object and often an indirect object or prepositional phrase.
The teacher will assign a new project today.
The manager decided to assign the most difficult accounts to the senior sales representative to ensure they were handled correctly.
In computer programming, you must assign a specific data type to a variable before the system can process the information accurately within the larger algorithm.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Latin signō Latin assignōlbor. Old French assignerbor. Middle English assignen English assign From Middle English assignen, from Old French assigner, asigner, from Latin assignō, from ad- + signō (“mark, sign”).
The verb is transitive. When used for tasks, it often follows the pattern 'assign something to someone' or 'assign someone something'.
The boss assigned to me the task.The boss assigned the task to me.When using 'to', the direct object (the task) should come before the prepositional phrase.