foresitter
English
Etymology
From fore- (“before”) + sitter or foresit + -er. Compare Latin praesidēns (“leader”, literally “sitting before”) and Old English foresittan (“to preside”, literally “to sit before”).
Noun
foresitter (plural foresitters)
- (puristic, rare) One who presides; a president.
- 1852, Alfred the Great, translated by E. Thomson, “King Alfred’s Version of Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation; […]”, in The Whole Works of King Alfred the Great: […], Jubilee edition, volume II, Oxford; Cambridge: […] [F]or the Alfred Committee, by Messrs. J. F. Smith and Co., →OCLC, page 317:
- 1. Or foresitter, i. e. President.
- 1891 July, James Chrystal, “The Synod Itself”, in Authoritative Christianity. The First Ecumenical Council; […], volumes I (Which Contains All Its Undisputed Remains in Greek and English), Jersey City, N.J.: James Chrystal, […], →OCLC, page 262:
- Hefele finds that some Roman Bishop is spoken of as praesidens, that is foresitting in other Ecumenical Councils (419), or that Hosius is mentioned as having been a leader (ἡγήσατο) in Councils (420), and he immediately jumps to the conclusion that he was the only foresitter and the only leader, and in brief the Chairman or President of the Council.
- 1897, Karl Pearson, “General Words for Sex and Kinship”, in The Chances of Death and Other Studies in Evolution, volume II, London; New York, N.Y.: Edward Arnold […], →OCLC, chapter 11 (Kindred Group-Marriage), page 183:
- A more especially folk-term is O[ld] H[igh] G[erman] truhsâze, M[iddle] H[igh] G[erman] truhtsaeze, Old Friesian drusta, Swedish drottsät, drots, Danish drost, the foresitter of the truht group, and later an important court-official, the representative of the king, truchsess, also the chief of the royal larder.
- 2000 November 11, AquatiK, “Al Gore needs your help”, in be.politics[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 17 November 2025:
- Neverlotwithstanding, we will ask the foresitters of our stemmlocals that they ask for your hexpertise in eclectical fraud, so that all our stemms are telled[sic] like they must.