prefect
noun/ˈpriːfekt/
/ˈpriːfekt/
- (in some British schools) an older student with some authority over younger students and some other responsibilities and advantagesTopics Educationc2, People in societyc2
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- (also Prefect)an officer responsible for an area of local government in some countries, for example France, Italy and Japan
Word Originlate Middle English (in sense (2)): from Old French, from Latin praefectus, past participle of praeficere ‘set in authority over’, from prae ‘before’ + facere ‘make’. Sense (1) dates from the early 19th cent.
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