proconsul
(prəʊˈkɒnsəl)
[a. L. prōconsul, from the earlier phrase prō consule ‘(one acting) for the consul’: see pro-1 4 and consul.]
1. a. Rom. Hist. An officer who acting as governor or military commander in a Roman province discharged the duties and had most of the authority of a consul; in the later republic the office was almost always held by an ex-consul; under the emperors, the governor of a senatorial province.
| 1382 Wyclif Acts xiii. 7 A fals prophete, Jew,..that was with the proconsul Sergius Poul, prudent man. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 173 They were deuicte after that in Apulea by Marchus the proconsul of Rome. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. ix, He [Marcus Antoninus] aduanced hym [Proculus] to be proconsul. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. vii. 8 He creates Lucius Pro-Consull. 1652 Needham Selden's Mare Cl. 83 The spatious province of the Proconsul of Asia. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xvii. II. 36 The proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa, claimed a pre-eminence, which was yielded to the remembrance of their ancient dignity. 1844 Thirlwall Greece VIII. lxiv. 275 The proconsul, P. Sempronius..endeavoured to rouse the adjacent Illyrian tribes against Macedonia. 1904 Ramsay Lett. to Seven Ch. ix. 97 The provincial administration exercised the full authority of the Roman Empire, delegated to the Proconsul for his year of office. |
| fig. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 61 Our Proconsul, and chief Prouost, Christ Iesus. |
b. transf. Applied rhetorically to a governor of a modern dependency, colony, or conquered province.
In the earlier period of the French Revolution the title was borne by certain commissioners who accompanied the revolutionary armies in insurgent departments, etc.
| 1827 Scott Napoleon Introd., Wks. 1870 IX. 277 Another Jacobin proconsul. 1841 Macaulay Ess., W. Hastings (1887) 684 Such was the aspect with which the great Proconsul presented himself to his judges. 1864 Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 125 It is a fine thing to see a homely old pro-consul retiring from the government of a region as large as France and Austria together, with a clear conscience and a sound digestion. 1893 McCarthy Red Diamonds I. 2 The poets and proconsuls who made the Hanoverian rule illustrious. |
2. (pro-consul.) A deputy consul (consul 8).
| 1804 Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1846) VI. 87 Had the Dey yielded this point..I should have had no difficulty in placing a Pro-Consul at Algiers... I should have appointed Mr. M{supc}Donough Consul pro tempore. |
3. (See quot.)
| 1939 Sunday Times 8 Jan. 13/1 A pro-Consul..is a resident member of a British trading community abroad, generally a shipping agent or merchant of repute. |
4. Usu. with initial capital. [A. T. Hopwood 1933, in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 10th Ser. XI. 98.] An extinct ape belonging to the genus so called, known from Miocene fossil remains discovered in East Africa by Louis Leakey (1903–72) in 1932.
| 1933 Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Zool. XXXVIII. 457 It would seem that the dentition of Proconsul is more primitive than that of the chimpanzee. 1954 New Biol. XVII. 12 The remains of fossil apes are especially abundant [on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria],..of which the most famous has been Proconsul. 1962 Listener 5 Apr. 589/1 This animal, which has been named Proconsul, existed approximately 25,000,000 years ago. 1973 J. Bronowski Ascent of Man i. 38 A classical find made by Louis Leakey goes by the dignified name of Proconsul... (The name Proconsul..was coined to suggest he was an ancestor of a famous chimpanzee at the London Zoo in 1931 whose nickname was Consul.) 1977 A. Hallam Planet Earth 284 Proconsul, an animal about the size of a small baboon, is known from a good skull, jaws and some limb bones. |