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When the founders were writing the Constitution in the 1780s, they had no idea what to call the executive officer. King? Absolutely not. They wanted something that sounded impressive but not all-powerful.

Enter the word "president." It was floating around at the time, but its uses weren't too lofty.

"It comes from 'praesidere,' which literally means 'to sit before,' " says linguist Ben Zimmer, executive editor of Vocabulary.com. "It referred to an officer who would sit before a gathering and would serve as the presiding officer."

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The founders also addressed what crimes constituted grounds for impeachment. Treason and bribery were obvious choices, but George Mason of Virginia thought those crimes did not include a large number of punishable offenses against the state. James Madison of Virginia objected to using the term “maladministration” because it was too vague. Mason then substituted “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” in addition to treason and bribery. The term “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” was a technical term—again borrowed from British legal practice—that denoted crimes by public officials against the government. Mason’s revision was accepted without further debate. But subsequent experience demonstrated the revised phrase failed to clarify what constituted impeachable offenses.