praeses

Forms

praeses m or f (genitive praesidis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + sedeō (“to sit”), a root noun in *-se(d)s like obses (“hostage”): one who sits in front.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces sedeō to Proto-Italic *sed-ē- (“to be seated”) and Proto-Indo-European *sed-eh₁- (“to be seated”).^[4] Isidore derived it instead from praesum (“to be at the head”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] whose Rudens sends two guards home from their post.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a guardian or protector, as Cicero calls the tribune of the plebs the guardian of liberty and the senate the guardian of the state; it is used of tutelary gods, as Mercury the protector of youth, and of abstract things, as Celsus' medicine, the art that guards human health.^[2][6] Under the Empire it becomes a general term for any provincial governor: Tacitus speaks of Vitellius as governor of Syria, and a jurist explains that proconsuls and imperial legates are all called by it.^[2] Church Latin glosses it president, chairperson.^[7] In Medieval Latin it is a provincial governor, a Carolingian or feudal count, the mayor of the palace, or a margrave or duke.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of guards at a post.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of guardians of liberty and of tutelary gods.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of the governor of a province.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A guardian, warden, protector; of gods, a tutelary deity.^[2][6][1]
2. A head or chief; a president.^[1][7]
3. A provincial governor.^[2][1][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A count; the mayor of the palace; a margrave or duke.^[8]

Word family

• praesidalis

Related words

• praesideō
• obses

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill