[glogla]

> ‘Vice’ in American English, still has alternative meanings, like ‘vice president’.

Does that count as English? I though it is borrowed Latin, like de facto, et cetera or per se.

[lostlogin]

No idea - it may have come to English via French too.

English is a mongrel of a language.

[defrost]

From a brief dip in the multi volume full OED it looks like "Vice Chairman" (etc) came about via vyse | visage | "face" .. as in "This person is a substitute | deputy | "the face" of another person or role"

It's a usage going back to at least 1597 and lost in the fog of time before.

[glogla]

Interesting. It works the same in a most European languages (Vicepresidente, Vice-président, Vizepräsident, Wiceprezydent, Viceprezident, Віцепрезидент, Вице-президент, ...).