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Definition of proconsul - 4 dictionary results
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pro⋅con⋅sul

  [proh-kon-suhl]
Use proconsul in a Sentence
–noun
1. Roman History. an official, usually a former consul, who acted as governor or military commander of a province, and who had powers similar to those of a consul.
2. any appointed administrator over a dependency or an occupied area.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME < L prōconsul; see pro- 1 , consul

Related forms:
pro⋅con⋅su⋅lar, adjective
pro⋅con⋅su⋅lar⋅ly, adverb
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Pro⋅con⋅sul

  [proh-kon-suhl]
–noun
an African subgenus of Dryopithecus that lived 17–20 million years ago and is possibly ancestral to modern hominoids.
Origin:
< NL (1933), equiv. to pro- pro- 1 + Consul, allegedly the name of a chimpanzee in a London zoo (with a pun on L prōconsul proconsul ); the genus was thought to be ancestral to the chimpanzee
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To proconsul
pro·con·sul   (prō-kŏn'səl)   
n.  

  1. A provincial governor of consular rank in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.

  2. A high administrator in one of the modern colonial empires.


[Middle English, from Latin prōcōnsul, from prō cōnsule, in place of the consul : prō, instead of; see pro-1 + cōnsule, ablative of cōnsul, consul; see consul.]
pro·con'su·lar (-sə-lər) adj., pro·con'su·late (-sə-lĭt) n., pro·con'sul·ship' n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

proconsul 
1382, "governor or military commander of an ancient Roman province," from L. proconsul, from phrase pro consule "(acting) in place of a consul," from pro- + abl. of consul. In modern use, usually rhetorical, but it was a title of certain commissioners in the Fr. Revolution and also was used in Eng. for "deputy consul."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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