▪ I. consul, n.
(ˈkɒnsəl)
Also 7 consull.
[a. L. consul (in sense 1), f. con- together + -sal- root of salīre to leap, jump, = Skr. sar- to go: cf. consilium counsel, and consultāre to consult.]
I. In the Roman and French Republics.
1. The title of the two annually elected magistrates who exercised conjointly supreme authority in the Roman Republic; the title without the function was retained under the Empire.
The Roman reckoning of time was by the names of the two consuls for the year.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Macc. xv. 15 Lucius, consul [1388 cheef gouernour] of Romayns, to Kyng Ptholome, helthe. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 179 Gaius Fabricius, Which whilom was consul of Rome. 1533 Bellenden Livy iv. (1822) 323 L. Quincius Capitolinus, quhilk wes five times afore consul. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 277 'Tis thought that Martius shall be Consull. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xvii. 449 The title of consul was still the most splendid object of ambition. 1835 Lytton Rienzi ii. viii, ‘Long live the Consul Rienzi’ cried several voices. 1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 481 The last consul after whom the year was denominated was Basilius, junior, in the year 1294 a.u.c. or 541 a.d. in the reign of the Emperor Justinian. |
2. Hence given as a title to the three chief magistrates of the French Republic, from 1799 to 1804. The First Consul (who was Napoleon Bonaparte) had all the real power, the Second and Third Consuls having only a consultative voice.
| 1802 G. Rose Diaries (1860) I. 460 The late discussion with the First Consul. 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 127 The consuls, or rather the first or chief consul (for the other two were appointed by him, and acted only as his advisers and assistants) proposed the laws. |
II. Senses chiefly founded upon etymological connexion with L. consulĕre to counsel, consult.
† 3. Used by mediæval Latin writers in England and elsewhere as = comes, count, earl. Obs.
| [10.. Laws of Edw. Conf. ii. (Du Cange). c 1250 Bracton i. viii. §2 (Du Cange) Comites..qui etiam dici possunt consules a consulendo; reges enim tales sibi associant ad consulendum.] 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxiii. 249 In theyr apparell they were lyke vnto consules and nat vnto monkes. 1628 Coke On Litt. 168 a, The Sherife was deputy of the Consull or Earle, and therefore the Romanes called him Viceconsul, as we at this day call him vicecomes. 1677 F. Sandford Geneal. Hist. Eng. 75 Isabell, one of the Daughters and Heirs of William Consul of Gloucester. 1864 Freeman in Sat. Rev. XVIII. 461/2 One is amused to find the great opponent of King Stephen described as ‘Robert, surnamed {oqq}the Consul{cqq}, natural son of King Hen. I’..Robert was ‘surnamed {oqq}the Consul{cqq}’, only in the sense in which every other contemporary Earl was equally surnamed the Consul..Henry of Huntingdon, and others who used the same affected style, thought it fine to say ‘Consul’ instead of ‘Comes’. |
† 4. A member of a council: spec. of the early English Merchant or Trading Companies. Obs.
| 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 800 A noble gentilman, a consul in office. 1553 S. Cabot Ordinances 261 To be presented to the Gouernour, Consuls, and Assistants in London. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §12 Making them dictators, that their words should stand, and not consuls to give advice. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. Ded. 3 To the..Governor, the Consuls and court of Assistants of the Russia Company. |
† 5. Used as the English appellation of various foreign officials. By Shakespeare applied app. to the savii of Venice. Obs.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. ii. 43 Many of the Consuls, rais'd and met, Are at the Dukes already. 1618 Barnevelt's Apology C b, The true hearted Hollander, Consul and Captaine Peter Boom. Ibid. D iij, The Consulls, and Gouernours of Rotterdam. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiv. (1843) 818/2 The government [of Cologne] is under the senate and consuls. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 27 Venice..The third council..consists of the doge, his six counsellors, the capi della quarantia criminale, the savii grandi, the savii di terra ferma, and the savii de gl'ordini..The savii are a kind of public inspectors, or consuls. |
III. A municipal or commercial officer.
‖ 6. Formerly the name of certain municipal magistrates in Southern France and Catalonia, corresponding to the échevins of Northern France.
(Du Cange refers to Consules municipales at Barcelona at an early date (cf. 7), and in Provence in 1209.)
| a 1577 Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. (1612) 86 These Constables..bee like to them who are called Consuls in many Townes and Villages in France. 1670 Cotton Espernon iii. ix. 421 A Consul of Agen, who had been created so at his recommendation. 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3913/3 There are Letters from Marseilles..which say, the Inhabitants of that Place had..killed their Consul. 1787 C. Smith Rom. Real Life I. 56 The consuls of the district waited on her to offer her a guard. |
† 7. The appointed or elected head of the body of merchants of any nation resident in a foreign seaport or town, to settle disputes among them, and be their channel of communication with the local government or authority. Obs.
This appears to have arisen in the Mediterranean and to have been an extension of sense 4 or 6; Du Cange quotes a charter of King Jayme of Arragon of 1268, giving to the merchants of Barcelona, sojourning in parts beyond seas, power to appoint consuls over themselves.
| [c 1320 Symon Simeonis Itin. (1778) 21 Communiter quaelibet Christianorum civitas maritima habet fundum in civitate ipsa et consulem.] 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 187 They that doe traffike uppon the land, assemble many together, and elect a governour amongst them, whome they terme, Consul. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 586 A Consul of the Florentine merchants at Alexandria. |
8. Hence, by gradual development: An agent appointed and commissioned by a sovereign state to reside in a foreign town or port, to protect the interests of its traders and other subjects there, and to assist in all matters pertaining to the commercial relations between the two countries. So consul-general, vice-consul. (The ordinary current sense.)
| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. 176 (R.) The Venetians have a consul themselues. But all other nations goe to the French nations consul. 1601 W. Parry Trav. Sir A. Sherley 10 The English Consulls. 1694 tr. Milton's Lett. State (Cromwell to K. of Portugal, Oct. 1656), We deem'd it necessary to send to your Majesty Thomas Maynard..to reside in your Dominions, under the Character and Employment of a Consul, and to take care of the Estates and Interests of our Merchants. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. v. lxxiii. 333 These proceedings..of which the consul general Wolff, was acquainted in 1745. 1826 Kent Comm. I. 41 Consuls are commercial agents appointed to reside in the sea-ports of foreign countries with a commission to watch over the commercial rights and privileges of the nation deputing them. |
9. transf. The local representative officer of the Cyclists' Touring Club.
| 1882 Prospectus Bicycle Touring Club, The appointment of Consuls, or representatives, in various towns, to point out the ‘lions’ of the place..and to inform members..as to the state of roads and other matters in their local districts. |
10. attrib. and Comb.
| 1560 P. Whitehorne tr. Macchiavelli's Arte of Warre (1573) 44 a, An ordinarye Romane armie, which they call a Consull armie. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 248 At Rome in the Consul-feasts celebrated for the honour of Neptune. |
▪ II. ˈconsul, v. Comm.
[f. the n.]
trans. To submit to a consul for official examination and approval; to get (an invoice or the like) stamped by a consul.
When Merchandise above the value of {pstlg}20 is sent to the United States an Invoice must be sworn to before the U.S. Consul at the place of dispatch, who stamps it. A commercial letter of 9 July, 1891, calls this ‘to consul the invoice’.