agente

Agente is a term used in several Romance languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, meaning "agent" or "actor." It generally denotes a person or entity that acts on behalf of another or plays a role within a system.

In everyday language, agente can refer to professional intermediaries such as insurance agents, real estate agents, or sales agents. It can also designate a police or security officer in certain contexts, and it may describe a person who acts on behalf of an organization, such as a talent or travel agent.

In science and medicine, the term is used to describe a concept rather than a person. Phrases include etiological agent (the organism or factor causing a disease), chemical agent (a substance that causes a chemical effect), and nerve agent. In Spanish or Portuguese, expressions such as agente etiológico and agente químico are common for these ideas.

In other domains, agente appears in discussions of computing and artificial intelligence as an autonomous software or robotic system that perceives its environment and acts to achieve goals. In espionage or law enforcement, a secret agent (agente secreto) refers to a spy or undercover operative.

Etymologically, agente derives from the Latin agens, agentis, the present participle of agere, to act. The term and its derivatives are widely used across many languages to denote actors, intermediaries, or factors that enact or influence outcomes.