This week's theme: terms from French.
lese majesty or lèse majesté (leez MAJ-uh-stee) noun
1. An offense against a sovereign power.
2. An attack against someone's dignity or against a custom or institution
held sacred.
[From French lèse-majesté, from Latin crimen laesae maiestatis (the crime of
injured majesty).]
Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=lese+majesty
-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)
"There was, though, one small sign of disenchantment. In a field well away
from the airport, there was a scarecrow, dressed in the usual tatters,
except for a pair of All Blacks tracksuit bottoms. Such lese majesty would
have been unthinkable before the World Cup."
New Zealand: Natural Born Thriller; The Guardian (London, UK); Feb 5, 2000.
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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/lese_majesty.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/lese_majesty.ram
Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/lese_majesty.html
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