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PRINCIPAL

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 348 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRINCIPAL , a See also:

person or thing first, or See also:chief in See also:rank or importance, or, more widely, prominent, leading. The See also:Lat. adj. principalis, first, chief, See also:original, also princely, is formed from princeps, the first, chief, See also:prince, from See also:Primus, first, and capere to hold. In See also:Late Lat. principalis was used as a substitute for an overseer or See also:superintendent, and also for the chief See also:magistrate of a See also:municipality (See also:Symmachus, Ep. 9, 1). It is a See also:common See also:title for the See also:head of educational institutions, See also:universities, colleges and See also:schools. It is thus used of the director, of some of the heads of newer universities in See also:England, e.g. See also:London and See also:Birmingham, always so in See also:Scotland, and frequently combined with the See also:vice-chancellorship. At the university of See also:Oxford the name occurs twice as the title of the head of a See also:college, viz. of Brasenose and Jesus. It was always used of the heads of halls, of which St See also:Edmund See also:Hall alone remains. It is also the designation used of the head of the newer theological or denominational colleges, and also of the See also:women's colleges. At See also:Cambridge it does not occur. In See also:law, it is used in distinction from " See also:accessory," for the person who actually commits the See also:crime, " principal in the first degree," or who is See also:present, aiding and abetting at the See also:commission of the crime," principal in the second degree;" and also for the person for whom another acts by his authority (see PRINCIPAL AND See also:AGENT below).

Finally as a shortened See also:

form of " principal sum," " principal See also:money," &c.,, the See also:term is used of the original sum See also:lent or invested upon which See also:interest is paid, and so, widely of any See also:capital sum, as opposed to interest or income derived from it.

End of Article: PRINCIPAL

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