president

The first Senate of the United States selected "His Highness" as the title of the president of th U.S., the full title decided upon being " His Highness the President of the United States of America and the Protector of the Rights of the Same." However, the House of Representatives voted the title down and the president was referred to as the more democratic Mr. President. The first President's wife, however, was called Lady Washington during his terms in office. President Washington himself objected to terms like "Your Majesty." The word president, also deriving from the Latin praesidere, to preside, govern, was used as the title of the highest officer in an American colony, a practice that began in Jamestown. William Howard Taft, a president handpicked for the position by his predecessor Theodore Rossevelt, once said that whenever he heard someone say "Mr. President" while he was in office he looked around for Teddy. taken from Word and Phrase Origins 3rd edition, Robert Hendrickson