presidential
- 1Relating to a president or to the office of the presidency.
Presidential authority over foreign policy has expanded considerably over the past century.
Reporters camped outside the presidential residence awaiting an announcement.
- 2Showing the dignified composure that befits a president; stately and self-assured.
Critics agreed she struck a presidential tone, calm and commanding throughout the address.
His measured response to the disaster seemed remarkably presidential.
Similarstatesmanlike, dignified, stately, authoritative
Oppositeundignified
Note
Praise for conduct rather than office, and the sense that grades most naturally: a candidate can seem more presidential than a rival, or the most presidential of the field. It often follows verbs like seem and sound. Stewart Lee, writing in The Guardian in 2016, called magnanimity, patience and generosity the "old sense" of the word, which he set against what it had come to mean.
- 3Of a prayer, spoken to God by the presiding priest on behalf of the whole congregation.
The collect is a presidential prayer, offered by the celebrant on behalf of all present.
Liturgists distinguish presidential prayers from those recited by the entire assembly.
Note
A liturgical term of art, nearly always met in the phrase presidential prayers. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2002) explains the name: the priest presides over the assembly in the person of Christ and speaks for all present. The collect and the eucharistic prayer belong here, but prayers the whole congregation says together do not. The root idea of presiding survives here, as it did in the obsolete "watching over" use.
Less common meaning
- 4Presiding over or keeping watch over a place, person, or sphere.
Note
Older English used the word for any power that presides over something, as a guardian deity presides over a city or a spirit over a household. The adjective is built from president, one who presides, and this sense keeps that plain meaning. It is obsolete now. In older prose, do not read politics into it: a presidential spirit is a watchful one, not an elected one.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "president" combined with the suffix "-ial."