Noah Webster
Senior
SENIOR, adjective see'nyor. [Latin senior, comparative of senex, old.] Elder or older; but as an adjective, it usually signifies older in office; as the senior pastor of a church, where there are colleagues; a senior counselor. In such use, senior has no reference to age, for a senior counselor may be, and ofted is the younger man.
SENIOR, noun see'nyor.
1. A person who is older than another; one more advanced in life.
2. One that is older in office, or one whose first entrance upon an office was anterior to that of another. Thus a senator or counselor of sixty years of age, often has a senior who is not fifty years of age.
3. An aged person; one of the oldest inhabitants.
A senior of the place replies. Dryden.