an officer of the Communist Party, especially in the past in the Soviet Union (尤指旧时苏联的)政治委员,政委 Word Originearly 20th cent. (Russian Revolution): from Russian komissar, from French commissaire, from medieval Latin commissarius ‘person in charge’, from Latin commiss- ‘joined, entrusted’, from the verb committere (in medieval Latin ‘put into custody’), from com- ‘with’ + mittere ‘put or send’.