In many systems, the mayor is an elected politician who serves
as chief executive and/or ceremonial official of many types of
municipalities. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local
laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a
mayor, as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or
otherwise mandated. The word derives from Latin major ("major",
"greater") which developed like such terms as senior ("elder")
to mean (in) chief. In spite of its Latin etymology, "mayor" was
not a Roman office, as Roman municipia were rather governed by
collegial magistrates bearing various titles, such as "Consul"
or various terms expressing their number (e.g., duumvir, two),
or even titles of pre-Roman local origin. Among the nations
which arose on the ruins of the Roman empire of the West, and
which made use of the Latin spoken by their "Roman" subjects as
their official and legal language, maior (and, in some contexts,
the rarer Low-Latin feminine maiorissa) were found to be very
convenient terms to