PRESIDENT, a style of title of one who presides. In classi cal Latin the title praeses, or president, was given to all governors of provinces, but was confined in the time of Diocletian to the procurators who, as lieutenants of the emperor, governed the smaller provinces. In this sense it survived in the middle ages. Du Cange gives instances from the capitularies of Charlemagne of the style praeses provinciae as applied to the count ; and later examples of praeses, or praesidens, as used of royal seneschals and other officials having jurisdiction under the Crown.
In England the word survived late in this sense of royal lieu tenant. Thus, John Cowell, in his Interpreter of Words (1607) defines "president" as "used in common law for the king's lieuten ant in any province or function ; as president of Wales, of York, of Berwick, president of the king's council." In some of the British North American colonies (New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina) there was a president of the council, usually elected by the council; and when Pennsylvania and New Hamp shire became States, one member of the executive council was called president. The chief (and single) executive head in Dela ware, South Carolina and New Hampshire (1784-92) was called president.
During the revolutionary struggle in America from 1774 on wards, the presiding officer of the continental congress was styled "president" and when the present constitution of the United States was framed in 1787 (in effect 1789) the title of president was transferred to the head of the Federal Government. "Presi dent" thus became the accepted style for the elected chief of a modern republic.
In the simple sense of "one who presides" the word "president" preserved its meaning alongside the technical use implying royal delegation. In ecclesiastical terminology praesidens was sometimes
used for the head of cathedral chapters, instead of dean or prov ost; and it was sometimes the title given to the principal visitor of monasteries. In Great Britain the heads of many col leges are styled "president," the title being of considerable an tiquity in the case of one college at Cambridge (Queens', founded in 1448) and four at Oxford (St. John's, Magdalen, Corpus Christi, Trinity). At five Cambridge colleges (Pembroke, Gon ville and Caius, St. Catherine's, St. John's, Magdalene) the title "president" is borne by the second in authority, being the equiva lent of "vice-master." In the United States "president" is the usual style the head of a college and also of a university wherever this has developed out of a single college. "President" is also the style of persons elected to preside over the meetings of learned, scientific, literary and artistic academies and societies, e.g., the president of the Royal Academy (P.R.A.) in London; the title of the president of the Royal Society (P.R.S.) dates from its foundation in 166o. In the United States the style "president" is also given to the person who presides over the proceedings of financial, commercial and industrial corporations (banks, rail ways, etc.), in Great Britain usually styled "chairman," but in the Bank of England and certain other banks "governor." In France, besides the president of the republic, there are presi dents of the senate and of the chamber of deputies. In Germany the word Prdsident is used in most of the English senses of "president," e.g., of a corporation, assembly or political body.