Governor

How to spell governor

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce governor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does governor mean?

1. nounA person who holds executive authority over a region, institution, or organisation.
2. nounA device that automatically regulates the speed of an engine or machine.

Governor in a sentence

• The governor of the state vetoed the spending bill.

• The mechanic adjusted the governor to cap the engine's top speed.

• Each prison reports to a governor responsible for daily operations.

• A faulty governor let the turbine spin dangerously fast.

Where does governor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin gubernare, meaning 'to steer a ship', which the Romans had themselves borrowed from the Greek kybernan, also a sailing term for steering or piloting. From that nautical sense came gubernator, literally a 'helmsman' or pilot, which broadened into the idea of one who guides or directs an entire state. English took the word in through Old French gouverneur during the 1300s, and the older French and Latin spellings explain why the modern word keeps an 'o' in the middle (gov-ER-nor) where the second vowel is an easily dropped, unstressed schwa. The same gubernare root still surfaces in the slightly bookish adjective 'gubernatorial', and in the engineering 'governor' that regulates an engine's speed; that mechanical sense is a neat survival of the original idea of steering. The spelling trap is the final ending: it is -or, not the more common -er, even though the two sound identical when spoken.

How the word is built

• govern (from Latin gubernare: to steer, direct)
• -or (agent noun suffix: one who does)