PRESIDENT

[Dr. Goodword]

• president •

Pronunciation: pre-zê-dent • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: The chief executive officer of a government or organization.

Notes: The office held by a president is a presidency. Presidents should be presidential and behave presidentially, which is to show leadership in effecting the values of the organization over which he or she presides. All these words are derivations of the verb preside even though their meanings have narrowed: not everyone who presides over a meeting or group is a president. When speaking of a president of a nation, this word is usually capitalized: President Obama.

In Play: The 44th US President is now in office after presenting to the nation and the world an excellent speech on plans for his presidency. President Obama elated his millions-strong audience with a promise to return the government of the US to its historical and historic principles. We all applaud him and look forward to his presidential tenure with new hope and renewed enthusiasm for our nation and the world.

Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed via French from Latin praesidere "preside", made up of prae- "in front of" + sedere "to sit". The same root underlying the Latin root, sed-, is found in most of the Indo-European languages: English sit and set, German sitzen, Russian sadit', and Spanish sentarse. English seat obviously comes from the same root but what about chair? Yep, it, too. Ancient Greek often replaced an initial S with an H (compare Latin semi- versus Greek hemi- "half"). The results of this process on sed- were the words hedra "chair, sitting" and kathedra "seat", from kat(a)- "down" + hedra. Latin borrowed this word as cathedra, which we use to refer to the seat of a bishop or university professor. Old French planed this word down to a mere chaiere, which made it so tempting that Middle English had to add it to English's French collection as chair.

[Perry]

President Obama's inaugural speech was very presidential. Let's hope that he can get his plans (and our country) off the ground.

[skinem]

No kidding, Perry!
No matter one's politics, I've always hoped the President, ANY President, does a good job and what's best for the country.

...of course, that's where opinion comes in...what's best...