Governor

governor

Quotes

• 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.
  • Hadley Taylor ubernatorial (1996)