Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRIN'CI-PAL, n.

1. A chief or head; one who takes the lend; as, the principal of a faction, an insurrection or mutiny.
2. The president, governor, or chief in authority. We apply the word to the chief instructor of an academy or seminary of learning.
3. In law, the actor or absolute perpetrator of a crime, or an abettor. A principal in the first degree, is the absolute perpetrator of the crime; a principal in the second degree, is one who is present, aiding and abetting the fact to be done; distinguished from an accessory. In treason, all persons concerned are principals. – Blackstone.
4. In commerce, a capital sum lent on interest, due as a debt or used as a fund; so called in distinction from interest or profits. Taxes must be continued, because we have no other means for paying off principal. – Swift.
5. One primarily engaged; a chief party; in distinction from an auxiliary. We were not principals but auxiliaries in the war. – Swift.
6. In music, an organ stop.