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councillor

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,066 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: councillors

A councillor is an elected member of a local governing body. A parish councillor.

It is spelt with a c and two l's, unlike a counsellor who gives advice. A councillor in Britain is usually unpaid beyond expenses, which shapes who can afford to stand.

Municipal Affairs and Housing of Ontario · CC BY 2.0

Definitions of councillor

  1. 1nouncouncillorAn elected member of a local governing body.C1

    “The councillor held a surgery in the library every Saturday.”

councillor is a person.

Where it comes from

An alteration of counsellor, reshaped to match council; the two words are now kept apart in spelling.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *kelh₁-

  2. Proto-Indo-European

    *selh₁- — take, grab

  3. Latin

    cōnsilium — plan, intention, design, purpose

  4. Old French

    conseil — advice, deliberation, thought

  5. Middle English

    counseil — meeting, conference, commune

  6. English

    council

  7. English, today

    councillor

Built from

  • cōnsulō · Latin — consult, seek counsel from, take counsel from, deliberate, reflect

Alteration of counsellor, by assimilation with council. by surface analysis, council + -or. council Middle English counseil (“meeting, conference, commune”), from Old French conseil (“advice, deliberation, thought”), from Latin cōnsilium (“plan, intention, design, purpose”), from cōnsulō (“consult, seek counsel from, take counsel from, deliberate, reflect”), from Proto-Indo-European selh₁- (“take, grab”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

councillor in the wild

  • Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto.

    Toronto City Council

  • The council consists of a mayor and ten councillors elected to serve a four-year term.

    Vancouver City Council

  • Monthly, a deputy mayor is appointed from among the councillors.

    Vancouver City Council

  • The governing body consists of a mayor and 20 councillors, elected from 13 wards.

    Auckland Council

  • Conservative councillor Ian Harrison also later resigned the Conservative whip, while Anne Cheale described herself as "non aligned".

    2010 Thurrock Council election

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the conseil family

councilcounsel

councillor — used about once every 4,196 pages · #9,066 · point at the bar for the others