Elector
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.
"Where the qualifications of the electors are the ſame, whether they have to chooſe a ſmall or a large number their votes will fall upon thoſe in whom they have the moſt confidence; whether thoſe happen to be men of large fortunes or of moderate property or of no property at all."
- 2 A German prince entitled to elect the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire; a prince-elector. historical
"In one of the conflicts, the [Holy Roman] emperor himſelf was put to flight, and very near being made priſoner by the elector of Saxony."
- 3 any of the German princes who were entitled to vote in the election of new emperor of the Holy Roman Empire wordnet
- 4 A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.; A person eligible to vote to elect a Member of Parliament. British, Commonwealth
"I Think this Letter, which was ſent to me by my Electors, worth printing, becauſe as it has convinced me, it may convince others."
- 5 a citizen who has a legal right to vote wordnet
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- 6 A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.; A member of an electoral college; specifically (US) an official selected by a state as a member of the Electoral College to elect the president and vice president of the United States.
"The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows / Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
- 7 A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.; Alternative letter-case form of Elector (“a German prince entitled to elect the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire”). alt-of, historical
"Whan the electours profered to make him [Ottokar II of Bohemia] emperour, he refuſed it, ſaiyng, that it was a greatter thynge to be kynge of Boheme, than emperour of Rome."
Synonyms
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More examples"Where the qualifications of the electors are the ſame, whether they have to chooſe a ſmall or a large number their votes will fall upon thoſe in whom they have the moſt confidence; whether thoſe happen to be men of large fortunes or of moderate property or of no property at all."
Etymology
From Middle English electour (“one with a right to vote in electing some office, elector”), borrowed from Late Latin ēlēctor (“chooser, selector; voter, elector”), from Latin ēligere (“to elect”) + -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns), equivalent to elect + -or. Ēligere is the present active infinitive of ēligō (“to extract, pluck or root out; (figurative) to choose, elect, pick out”), from ē- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’)) + legō (“to appoint, choose, select”) (from Proto-Italic *legō (“to gather, collect”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”)).