Presidential means to do with the head of state of a republic. A presidential election, presidential candidate, look presidential.
A presidential system is one where the head of state is elected separately from the legislature, which is the constitutional sense. To look presidential is a press judgement about bearing rather than about policy, and it decides more elections than it should.
1adjectivepresidentialTo do with the head of state of a republic.
“The candidates held their final presidential debate a week before the vote.”
presidential is a quality.
Latin
praesidēns — presiding over; president, leader
Old French
president
English
president
English, today
presidential
Built from
From president + -ial. president comes 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