preside

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To be in charge of a meeting, ceremony, or organization.

   The mayor presided over the opening ceremony.

2. 2
   verb

   To be in a position of authority or control during a period or event.

   She presided over a decade of remarkable growth at the company.

From Old French presider, from Latin praesidēre (“preside”), from pre- (“before”) + sedere (“to sit”). Displaced Old English foresittan, which might have been a calque of the Latin.

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