council

Etymology

From Middle English counseil, conseil, from late Old English cuncile, from Anglo-Norman cuncile and Old French concile, from Latin concilium. Doublet of concelho.

noun

1. A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).
   He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site. 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess
2. Discussion or deliberation.
   Satan […] void of rest, / His potentates to council called by night; 2008 [1667], John Milton, chapter 6, in W. Kerrigan, J. Rumrich, S. Fallon, editors, Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (poetry), Random House Publishing Group, lines 414–416, page 212