A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a governor may be either appointed or elected, and the governor's powers can vary significantly, depending on the public laws in place locally. The adjective pertaining to a governor is gubernatorial, from the Latin root gubernare. In a federated state, the governor may serve as head of state and head of government for their regional polity, while still operating under the laws of the federation, which has its own head of state for the entire federation.[1]
- Gubernatorial is now different in form from governor, but they did originally start off the same way. Both words go back to the same Latin root, gubernare 'to steer; to govern'. The word gubernatorial (an Americanism, by the way) was borrowed directly from the Latin gubernator 'a steersman; governor' in the eighteenth century, so it preserves the form of the Latin word. Governor, on the other hand, was borrowed in the thirteenth century from the Old French word governeor. This Old French word derives from the same Latin word, but it underwent the regular sound changes of Latin b to Old French v and Latin u to Old French o.
