Lieutenancy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The office, rank or commission of a lieutenant in the military or in a civil post ; the district or area placed under a lieutenant's command or authority ; the body of lieutenants considered together as a group
2. The position held by a deputy officer who acts for a higher authority ; the territory governed by such a deputy ; the group of deputies taken as a whole
3. A lieutenant's rank or term of office ; the region under a lieutenant's jurisdiction ; lieutenants viewed collectively as an assembled body

Etymology: Lieutenancy is built from "lieutenant" plus the abstract-noun suffix "-cy", and the first half is the more interesting part. "Lieutenant" is a compound of French "lieu" ("place") and "tenant" ("holding"), so it literally means "one who holds the place" of another. A lieutenant is therefore a substitute or deputy, which is why the word covers a whole range of posts, from a military officer acting under a captain to a governor's representative. The suffix "-cy" comes from Latin and French and turns a person's title into the office, rank or term of office, as in "captaincy" or "papacy". So "lieutenancy" names the post or rank held by a lieutenant, and by extension the body of officers or the area a lieutenant governs. In Britain, the Lieutenancy also refers to the county-level network of Lord Lieutenants, the monarch's representatives in each county.

Synonyms: deputyship