proxy

Imagine your friend can't make it to an important meeting, but you go in their place and speak for them. In that case, you are acting as their *proxy. A proxy is a person or thing that acts for someone or something else. This is common with people: for example, you might give someone a proxy vote so they can vote for you when you cannot be there. It also appears in technology. A proxy server* sits between you and the internet and passes requests along for you, sometimes adding privacy or control. Think of it as stepping into someone else's shoes for a while.

The word *proxy* has several closely related meanings, all built around the idea of representation or substitution. At its core, a proxy is a person authorized to act on behalf of another person. In legal, business, and political settings, it often means a stand-in who can use someone else's rights or carry out a duty for them. For example, you might appoint a proxy to vote at a shareholder meeting if you cannot attend, or allow someone to act for you in a formal decision.

However, *proxy is not limited to people. In the digital world, a proxy server is an intermediary between your device and the internet. It receives your request and passes it on, then returns the response. Because of that role, it can be used for privacy, security, filtering, or access control. In science, economics, and statistics, a proxy* can also be a measure that stands in for something harder to observe directly. For example, one number may be used as a proxy for a broader condition that cannot be measured in a simple way.

Historically, *proxy comes from an older word related to acting for someone else, and that basic idea still connects all its uses. Whether it refers to a legal representative, a server in a network, or a measure used in place of another measure, a proxy* is something that stands in for the original and acts or points in its place.