archon

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A high official; a ruler.
2. n. One of the nine principal magistrates of ancient Athens.
3. n. An authoritative figure; a leader: archons of cultural modernism.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A chief magistrate of some states in ancient Greece, and particularly Athens. After the abolition of the title of king in Attica there was chosen a single archon, who exercised for life essentially royal prerogatives. The term of office was afterward reduced to ten years, and in 683 b. c. it was made annual, and the duties of the archonship were distributed among nine persons. The first was the archōn epōnymos (name-giving archon), whose functions were executive and judicial, and whose name was given in official acts, etc., to the year of his service; the second was the archōn basileus (archon king), whose duties were chiefly religious and ceremonial; the third was the archōn polemarchos (archon generalissimo), who was, first in fact and then nominally, commander of the military power; and the remaining six were the thesmothetœ, or administrators of justice, whose most important duty it was to pass carefully in review, each year, the whole body of laws of the state, in order to make sure that no errors or contradictions had crept in, that repealed laws had been duly canceled, and that repetition was avoided. It rested with the thesmothetæ, also, to see that all the laws of the republic that were in vigor were strictly enforced, and to bring to trial any public official who had failed in his trust. At the end of their year of office, all the archons, unless they were found guilty of malfeasance, by virtue of their office entered the council of the Areopagus.
2. n. In the Byzantine empire: One of a number of great court officers.
3. n. A title assumed by the Frankish barons who established themselves in Greece after the fourth crusade, in the thirteenth century.
4. n. In modern Greece, a person in authority, as a magistrate, a presiding officer of some societies, etc.
5. n. Any ruler or governor.
6. n. In various Gnostic systems, one of several spiritual powers superior to angels, believed to be the rulers of the several heavens. According to Basilides, the great archon is the highest cosmical power and the creator of the ogdoad or ethereal world, having below him the archon who created and rules the hebdomad or lower planetary heaven. See archontic, hebdomad, and ogdoad.
7. n. In zoology, the human animal; man, as a member of the group Archontia.
8. n. In entomology: A genus of lepidopterous insects.
9. n. A genus of coleopterous insects.

Wiktionary

1. n. A chief magistrate of ancient Athens.
2. n. A ruler, head of state or other leader.
3. n. Gnosticism A supernatural being subordinate to the Demiurge.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Antiq.) One of the chief magistrates in ancient Athens, especially, by preëminence, the first of the nine chief magistrates.