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presidency|ˈprɛzɪdənsɪ, ˈprɛs-|
[= med.L. præsidēntia (1265 in Bonaventura), It. presidenza, Sp., Pr. presidencia, f. L. præsidēns, -ēntem: see president and -ency.]
1. The office or function of president; presidentship, chairmanship; superintendence, direction; also, the term during which a president holds office.
1591Percival Sp. Dict., Presidencia, presidencie, gouernment. 1608Capt. Smith True Relat. Wks. (Arb.) 9 With one consent he [Capt. Wingfield] was deposed from his presidencie. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 768 All which were..seruiceable in Captaine Smiths presidencie, to the English. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. i. (1821) 3 The Presidencie of Mounster being voyd, by the unfortunate death of Sir Thomas Norris. c1796T. Twining Trav. Amer. (1894) 136 General Washington..remained there till 1789, when the general voice of his country called him from his pastoral pursuits to the Presidency of the Government. 1823Canning Sp. Repeal For. Enlistment Bill 16 Apr., In the days of the presidency of Washington. 1847Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) I. 135 Of the fifty Prytanes ten had the presidency every seven days. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. viii. II. 293 The presidency [of Magdalen College] was not vacant: Hough had been duly elected; and all the members of the college were bound by oath to support him in his office. 1884Law Times 13 Sept. 332/2 The Queen's Bench Division, under the presidency of the late Lord Chief Justice, refused to interfere.
fig.1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 91 Without the Presidency and Guidance of some superior Agent. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. iv. (1852) 92 Minds..perceived in these parts of his glorious works the presidency and the wisdom, as well as the power and majesty, of God.
b. First Presidency (among the Mormons): the board of presiding officers, consisting of the president of the church and two counsellors.
a1853Gunnison in Gardner Faiths World I. 492/2 The hierarchy of the Mormon church has many grades of offices and gifts. The first is the presidency of three persons. 1858Mrs. M. E. V. Smith Fifteen Years am. Mormons 151 The Prophet and his two counsellors..form that fearful centre of all ecclesiastical and temporal power in the Church known as the First Presidency or simply the ‘Presidency’.
2. A district under the administration of a president; spec. in India, Each of the three divisions of the East India Company's territory, which were originally governed by the Presidents of the Company's three factories. Loosely, the seat of government of each of these. Also attrib. Obs. in official use: see quot. 1872.
[1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. Contents p. iv, Relation of the English Presidency at Surat. 1702in Charters East Ind. Comp. 323 (Y.) Under the Presidency of the aforesaid Island Bombay.] 1796Maj. J. Taylor (title) Observations on the Mode proposed by the new arrangement for the distribution of the off-reckoning Fund of the several Presidencies in India. 1839Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 257 Those whose knowledge of India is limited to the Presidency, and whose native acquaintance extends only to a few writers in Government offices. Ibid., It is..a Presidency prejudice that the natives are averse to being taught from books of our selecting. 1845Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 63 The enviable possession of a chaplaincy at the presidency. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lx, Jos's friends were all from the three presidencies, and his new house was in the comfortable Anglo-Indian district of which Moira Place is the centre. 1859Lang Wand. India 73 The doctor had been appointed a presidency surgeon, and had charge of one of the hospitals in Calcutta. 1872Whitaker's Almanack 246 The term ‘Presidency’..applied to the Provinces or Governments of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, is no longer applicable to the present condition of things, and in the case of Bengal is positively misleading. It is a relic of the time when the three settlements of Fort William, Fort St. George, and Bombay, each under the authority of a president, may be said to have comprised the whole of the British possessions in India.
†3. Superior, foremost, or leading position. Obs.
1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 12 Caietan denieth that there was any such presidencie and superiority among the midwiues. 1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xx. (1739) 36 The German Priests had a liberty to be present..and to have some presidency therein. |