presidency
Pluralpresidencies
- 1The office or role held by a president.
The presidency carries enormous responsibility and constant public scrutiny.
After two terms in the senate, she finally sought the presidency.
Note
The core sense comes from Medieval Latin praesidentia, though English speakers hear it simply as president plus -cy. Because it names an office, it pairs with verbs of reaching and holding: one ascends to, seeks or serves in the presidency. Dwight Eisenhower, writing in 1963, capitalized it (serving them in the Presidency). Put a family name in front and it becomes countable: talk of another Clinton presidency.
- 2The span of time during which a person holds the office of president; a president's term in office.
The economy grew steadily throughout his presidency.
Several major reforms were passed in the final year of her presidency.
Similarterm, tenure, administration
Note
Time is measured here, so the word takes durations and names. A presidency lasts five years in France, and a historian studies the presidency of Herbert Hoover. The article is the quickest guide. A presidency, his presidency or the presidency of someone points to a term. The presidency standing alone usually means the office itself.
- 3The administrative organization and government initiatives that stem directly from the president.
The presidency rolled out a sweeping set of economic initiatives this spring.
Critics argued that the presidency had accumulated too much power over the decades.
Similaradministration
Note
Here the word stands for the machinery around the office rather than the person in it. That is why the two can pull apart in one sentence: a president's lame-duck status can leave the presidency hampered by Congress. Political commentary relies on this sense when it speaks of the presidency gaining power or launching initiatives, treating the institution as an actor in its own right.
- 4A supreme local council composed of three persons, or (often capitalized) the highest governing authority of an organization.
The presidency issued a formal statement to all local congregations.
Each member of the presidency held equal authority within the council.
Note
Latter-day Saint church government uses the word for a council of three persons that leads a local body together. Capitalized, and especially as the First Presidency, it names the highest authority of the whole church. Readers outside that tradition should take a capital P in Mormon writing as a title, not as a reference to any president.
- 5One of the three original administrative provinces into which British India was divided.
The Bengal presidency was the wealthiest of the three under colonial rule.
Administrators were posted from London to each presidency in turn.
Note
A term of colonial administration that survives mainly in histories of British India. The three presidencies were Bengal, Madras and Bombay, each governed from a principal port city. Each began as a trading settlement of the East India Company. The word usually appears in their names, as in the Bengal Presidency. Modern writers use it only for that period, not for present-day Indian states.
- 6In some churches, the function of an ordained minister in presiding over the Eucharist.
In this tradition, presidency at the Eucharist is reserved for ordained priests.
The bishop delegated presidency of the Sunday liturgy to a visiting priest.
Note
In Christian sacramental theology the word returns to the act of presiding. It refers to the ordained priest or bishop who leads the Eucharist and says the words of institution. It is usually phrased as presidency at the Eucharist, or presidency of the liturgy. In debates over who may preside, it carries a precise claim: in many denominations this role belongs only to the ordained.
Practice
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Origin
From Medieval Latin praesidentia; by surface analysis it can be read as 'president' plus the suffix '-cy'.