Other forms: presidents
A president is the person elected to lead a republic. You see the president stepping off a plane, signing something at a wide desk, standing at a podium with a row of flags behind.
The word reaches well past countries. A company has a president, so does a golf club, a university, a students' union — anyone who sits at the head of the table. You are president OF something: president of the United States, president of the board. The adjective is presidential (a presidential election, a presidential palace) and the office itself is the presidency. Watch the capital letter: President Lincoln takes one, the president of a small tennis club does not.
1nounpresidentThe elected head of state of a republic.~94%
“The president will address the nation at nine.”
synonyms: head of state
2nounchargeThe person in charge of a company, club, society or other organisation.~6%
“She was elected president of the tennis club for a second year.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
president is a leader.
President came through Old French from Latin praesidēns, 'the presiding one', built on the verb praesideō, to preside over. Break that verb open and you find prae, 'before', plus sedeō, 'sit'. A president is literally the person who sits at the front of the meeting — the sense of commanding and governing came second.
Latin
praesidēns — presiding over; president, leader
Old French
president
English, today
president
Built from
From Old French president, from Latin praesidēns (“presiding over; president, leader”) (accusative: praesidentem). The Latin word is the substantivized present active participle of the verb praesideō (“preside over”). The verb is composed from prae (“before”) and sedeō (“sit”). The original meaning of the verb is 'to sit before' in the sense of presiding at a meeting. A secondary meaning of the verb is 'to command, to govern'. So praesidēns means 'the presiding one on a meeting' or 'governor, commander'.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA