Why “regent” is a great word
REGENT — [Noun/Adjective] A person who governs a state in the absence, minority, or incapacity of the sovereign; also, as an adjective, ruling or exercising vicarious authority. From Middle English regent, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French regent, from Latin regēns ("ruling; ruler, governor"), present participle of regō ("to rule, to govern"). First recorded in English in the late 14th century. Unlike a monarch, who rules by inherent right, or a viceroy, who governs a foreign possession, a regent is the steward of the central throne, a caretaker of power’s very hearth. It is the hand steadying the orb for a child’s grasp, the signature on edicts that dare not bear a minor’s scrawl, and the crown resting on velvet beside an empty seat—authority most absolute in its anxious and ephemeral loan.