prefect

From Middle English prefect and prefecte, borrowed from Old French prefect (modern French préfet), which came from Latin praefectus, meaning 'one placed in charge, overseer, director, prefect.'

The Latin word praefectus itself came from praeficere, 'to place in charge' — so the noun always carried the sense of someone installed in authority by another's decision, a meaning that passed largely intact through French and into English.

It shares its root with the verb praeficere, 'to place in charge,' the Latin action behind the title — the prefect is simply the person that act creates.