council - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Inherited from Middle English counseil, from Old French conseil, from late Latin cōnsilium; with the spelling in -c- adopted after Latin concilium in Early Modern English, though some senses of counseil were influenced by Old French concile, a semi-learned borrowing from concilium.Doublet of concelho and counsel.

council (plural councils)

  1. A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.
    • 2024 November 2, Maryse Zeidler, “Hereditary chiefs slam Vancouver Island city council for remarks on restoring Indigenous place names”, in CBC News‎[1]:
      The comments were made at a council meeting last month, during which one councillor questioned whether changing the names would be pushing reconciliation efforts along too quickly. […] At a city council meeting on Oct. 8, Campbell River councillors discussed a letter sent by the B.C. Geographical Names Office inviting comments on the name changes.
    1. (UK, metonymic) A local authority.
  2. Discussion or deliberation.
  3. (Christianity) Short for church council
    Synonym: synod
    the First Council of Nicaea

committee that leads or governs