The position or office of a dean, or the period of time someone serves as a dean.
Combination of 'dean' (from Latin 'decanus') and the suffix '-ship' (from Old English 'sciepe'), which denotes a position, office, or state of being.
The '-ship' suffix is incredibly productive in English—it transforms any title into an abstract concept (king→kingdom, friend→friendship, dean→deanship), letting us talk about roles and relationships in one syllable.
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