throne

From Middle English trone, from Old French trone, from Latin thronus, from Ancient Greek θρόνος (thrónos, “chair, throne”). Superseded earlier seld (“seat, throne”).

der

He approached the throne reverently.

9 After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could nūber, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, & tongues, stood before the throne, & before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palmes in their hands:
10 And cryed with a loude voice, saying, Saluation to our God, which sitteth vpon the Throne, and vnto the Lambe.
11 And all the Angels stood round about the Throne, and about the Elders, and the foure beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glorie, and wisedome, and thankesgiuing, and honour, & power, and might be vnto our God for euer & euer, Amen.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 7:9–12:

An impressive seat used by a monarch, often on a raised dais in a throne room and reserved for formal occasions.


throne room

The economy of space is a marvel; the studio may seem cluttered, a kind of Middle-earthian junkyard ringed by the stalks of lighting rigs, but one glance into the monitor and there is Théoden’s massive throne room, carved straight out of the pages of Tolkien’s vast antiquity.

2005, Andrew O’Hehir, “The Fellowship of the Ring”, in Peter Jackson: From Gore to Mordor, Plexus, →ISBN, page 138:

A room used for formal public audiences by a monarch.


king

Tok Pisin: king

desc

⇒ American Sign Language: K@Shoulder K@Abdomen

→ Burmese: ကင် (kang)

→ Isubu: kinge

→ Japanese: キング (kingu)

→ Korean: 킹 (king)

→ Maori: kingi

→ Marshallese: kiin̄

→ Thai: คิง (king)

From Middle English king, kyng, from Old English cyng, cyning (“king”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuning, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz, *kunungaz (“king”), equivalent to kin + -ing. Doublet of cyning and knez.
Cognate with Scots keeng (“king”), North Frisian köning (“king”), West Frisian kening (“king”), Dutch koning (“king”), Low German Koning, Köning (“king”), German König (“king”), Danish konge (“king”), Norwegian konge, Swedish konung, kung (“king”), Icelandic konungur, kóngur (“king”), Polish ksiądz (“priest”), Russian князь (knjazʹ, “prince”), Old Church Slavonic кънѧѕь (kŭnędzĭ), Romanian chinez, Finnish kuningas (“king”), Estonian kuningas, Ingrian kunigas, Karelian kuninkas, Livvi kuńingas, Ludian kuńingas, Veps kuningaz, Võro kuning and Votic kunikaz. Eclipsed non-native Middle English roy (“king”) (Early Modern English roy), borrowed from Old French roi, rei, rai (“king”).
The verb is inherited from Middle English kyngen, *kingen (“To perform the duties of a king”), itself from the noun king, kyng.

Audio — the king

акрал

a male of a royal family who is the supreme ruler of his nation

in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

Henry VIII was the king of England from 1509 to 1547.

A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation.


queen

Tok Pisin: kwin

⇒ American Sign Language: G@Shoulder-PalmDown G@Abdomen-PalmDown

→ Burmese: ကွင်း (kwang:)

→ German: Queen

→ Japanese: クイーン (kuīn), クィーン (kwīn)

→ Korean: 퀸 (kwin)

→ Marshallese: kwiin

→ Sikaiana: kuini

→ Spanish: cuina

→ Thai: ควีน (kwiin)

From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (“woman”).
Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween (“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Norwegian kvinne (“woman”), Danish kvinde (“woman”), Icelandic kvon (“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån (“wife”). Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of English quean, from Middle English quene, from Old English cwene (“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (“queen”), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”) (see Modern English regina). Doublet of quean and gyne.

gloss

"wife"; > Middle Low German <i class="Latn mention" lang="gml">quene</i> (“elderly woman”)

cog

Holonym: royal family

But our mercifull Queene Elizabeth hath not burned the popiſh prieſtes on the alters where they committed idolatrie in ſaying of Maſſe, and worſhipped a piece of breade for the bodie of Chriſte (which ſhee might haue done if ſhee would) and yet you count not her for a godly and mercifull Queene.

1582, Thomas Lupton, The Christian Against the Jesuite, London, retrieved 2022-01-14, page 50v:

In 1952, at the last accession, there were only eight members of the new entity taking shape in the outline of the British Empire. The Queen was the head of state in seven of them, and she was proclaimed Head of the Commonwealth to accommodate India’s lone status as a republic.

2017 March 17, Sam Knight, “‘London Bridge Is Down’: The Secret Plan for the Days After the Queen’s Death”, in The Guardian, London, retrieved 2022-01-16:

[…] and yet I will not ſay but amongſt duſt there is Pearle found, and in hard rockes Dyamonds of great value, and ſo amongſt many women there are ſome good, as that gracious and glorious Queene of all woman kinde the Virgin Mary the mother of al bliſſe, what wun her honour, but an humble minde and her paines and loue vnto our Sauiour Chriſt.

1620, Thomas Tell-Troth [pseudonym of Joseph Swetnam], The Araignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women: Or the Vanitie of Them, Choose You Whether, London, published 1807, retrieved 2022-01-14:

A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.

(Christianity) The Virgin Mary (especially in formulations such as Queen of Heaven, Queen of Glory).

A monarch butterfly (Danaus spp., especially Danaus gilippus).


mikado

en-noun

mikado (countable and uncountable, plural mikados)

Borrowed from Japanese 御門 (mikado), from 御 (mi, “honorable”) + 門 (kado, “gate, portal”).

com

A game of skill, in which identically shaped (but differently colored and valued) wooden sticks must be removed from a pile without disturbing the remaining stack.


kingdom

From Middle English kingdom, kyngdom, from Old English cyningdōm from Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz, equivalent to king + -dom. Cognate with Scots kingdom, West Frisian keuningdom, Dutch koningdom, German Königtum, Danish kongedømme, Swedish kungadöme, and Icelandic konungdómur.
Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz
Proto-West Germanic *kuningadōm
Old English cyningdōm
Middle English kingdom
English kingdom

etymon

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The Organized and inorganized kingdoms are distinguished from each other by peculiarities of chemical composition, of form and structure, and of actions or functions.

1839, Jonathan Pereira, The Elements of Materia Medica:

It has micobiont from Ascomycota and Basidiomycota belonging to kingdom Fungi and photobiont from Trebouxia species.

2022, Dhanasekaran Dharumadurai, Microbial Symbionts, page 811:

(taxonomy) A rank in the classification of organisms, below domain and above phylum; a taxon at that rank (e.g. the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom).

koninkryk

taxonomic division, below Domain and above Phylum


palace

Palatine Hill
Palatine#Derivative_terms
Pales
palace

From Middle English paleys, from Old French palais, which comes from Latin palātium, from Palātium, in reference to the Palatine (Palatine Hill), one of the seven hills of Rome, where the aristocracy of the Roman Republic—and later, Roman emperors—built large, splendid residences. The name is ultimately either from Etruscan, the same source as Pales (“Pales, the Italic goddess of shepherds, flocks and livestock”), or Latin palus (“stake; enclosure”). Doublet of palazzo and Pfalz.

Official residence of a head of state or other dignitary, especially in a monarchical or imperial governmental system.


RI

(monarchy) rex imperator (“king-emperor”) or regina imperatrix (“queen-empress”); the initials by which a British monarch signed documents after his or her name from 1877 until 1947.


cicisbeo

/ˌtʃɪtʃɪzˈbeɪəʊ/

/ˌt͡ʃit͡ʃəzˈbeɪoʊ/

Borrowed from Italian cicisbeo, of onomatopoeic origin.

My old Cicisbee says it would do: & he is (or was poor fellow!) a famous Scholar.

1784 December 7, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Thraliana:

The office of Cicisbeo is however an intolerably expensive one; especially to our countrymen.

1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, volume II, 19:

Of course a cicisbeo is a normal enough figure in Alexandrian life, but things are going to become socially very boring for you if you go out with those two so much.

He accuses the women of having cicisbei, the girls of having lovers.

1962, WH Auden, Elizabeth Mayer, translating JW Goethe, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 452:

(now chiefly historical) A man who escorts a married woman to social functions, especially in 18th-century Italy; a married woman's lover.


sovereign

→ Irish: sabhran

→ Russian: соверен (soveren)

→ Scottish Gaelic: sòbharan

→ Welsh: sofren

From Middle English sovereyn, from Old French soverain (whence also modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *superānus (compare Italian sovrano, Spanish soberano) from Latin super (“above”). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Doublet of soprano, from the same Latin root via Italian. See also suzerain, foreign.

souverain

one who is not a subject to a ruler or nation

en:coin with nominal value of one pound sterling

A gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.


castle

→ Tongan: kāsolo

From Middle English castle, castel, from late Old English castel, castell (“a town, village, castle”), borrowed from Late Latin castellum (“small camp, fort”), diminutive of Latin castrum (“camp, fort, citadel, stronghold”). Doublet of cashel, castell, castellum, and château.
Parallel borrowings (from Late Latin or Old French) are Scots castel, castell (“castle”), West Frisian kastiel (“castle”), Dutch kasteel (“castle”), German Kastell (“castle”), Danish kastel (“citadel”), Swedish kastell (“citadel”), Icelandic kastali (“castle”), Welsh castell.
The Middle English word was reinforced by Anglo-Norman/Old Northern French castel, itself from Late Latin castellum (“small camp, fort”) (compare modern French château from Old French chastel). If Latin castrum (“camp, fort, citadel, stronghold”) is from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“hut, shed”), Latin casa (“cottage, hut”) is related. Possibly related also to Gothic 𐌷𐌴𐌸𐌾𐍉 (hēþjō, “chamber”), Old English heaþor (“restraint, confinement, enclosure, prison”). See also casino, cassock.

cog

A large residential building or compound that is fortified and contains many defences; in previous ages often inhabited by a nobleman or king. Also, a house or mansion with some of the architectural features of medieval castles.

The castle was perhaps a figurative name for a close headpiece deduced from its enclosing and defending the head, as a castle did the whole body; or a corruption from the Old French word casquetel, a small or light helmet.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 12:

(dated) Any strong, imposing, and stately palace or mansion.


count

From Middle English counte, from Anglo-Norman conte and Old French comte (“count”), from Latin comes (“companion”) (more specifically derived from its accusative form comitem) in the sense of "noble fighting alongside the king". Doublet of comes, comte, and conte.

(entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called earls and viscounts.


crown

→ Japanese: クラウン (kuraun)

→ Korean: 크라운 (keuraun)

→ Maori: karauna

From Middle English coroune, from Anglo-Norman corone, from Latin corōna (“crown, wreath”), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē). Doublet of corona, korona, koruna, krona, króna, and krone. Displaced native Old English corenbēag (“crown”); and Middle English kinehelm, kynehelm, from Old English cynehelm (“crown”).
* (paper size): So called because originally watermarked with a crown.

doublet

Before so many of Europe's crowns came tumbling off the heads of their royal owners, Continental Europe could show a rich variety in the matter of royal trains.

1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 250:

en:royal, imperial or princely headdress

(clothing, monarchy) A royal, imperial or princely headdress; a diadem.


prince

From Middle English prince, from Anglo-Norman prince, from Latin prīnceps (“first head”), from prīmus (“first”) + capiō (“seize, take”). Cognate with Old English fruma (“prince, ruler”). Doublet of princeps and principe.
Displaced native Middle English atheling, from Old English æþeling; Middle English kinebarn, from Old English cynebearn; Middle English alder, from Old English ealdor; and Middle English drighten, from Old English dryhten.

af

Queen Elizabeth, a prince admirable above her sex.

1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, →OCLC:

prins

son or male-line grandson of a reigning monarch

A male member of a royal family other than the ruler; especially (in the United Kingdom) the son or grandson of the monarch.

Prince Louis de Broglie won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Conspiracy theories are always enticing: one I was involved with in the 50s was about Mayerling, the 19th-century Austrian scandal involving a prince’s lover who died in dodgy circumstances in a hunting lodge.

2011 October 16, Katharine Whitehorn, The Guardian:

A non-royal high title of nobility, especially in France and the Holy Roman Empire.


princess

From Middle English princesse, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman princesse, Old French princesse. By surface analysis, prince + -ess.

A Bulgarian open-faced baked sandwich prepared with ground meat.


emperor

From Middle English emperour, from Anglo-Norman emperour, from Latin imperātorem, derived from imperāre (“to command”). Doublet of imperator.

In imperial China, it was often a responsibility of the emperor to evaluate his predecessor after the latter's death.

They asked Julius Caesar, the valiant Roman emperor, what was the best death. He answered, that which is unexpected, which comes suddenly and unforeseen

1885, John Ormsby, transl., Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, Volume 2 Chapter XXIV:

In 690 Wu usurped the throne and became Emperor herself, which proved a unique event in the history of China.

1994, Het Spinhuis, Transactions: Essays in Honor of Jeremy F. Boissevain:

After his death in 683 she ruled for seven years as regent and then, deposing her son, became emperor herself, the only woman in Chinese history to hold the title.

2002, The Heritage of World Civilizations: To 1700, page 226:

Empress, imperial regent, and even emperor herself (r. 797–802), Irene was an important and powerful figure at the Byzantine court in the late eighth and early ninth century.

2008, Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation, page 211:

Originally the wife of the emperor, she engineered the imperial succession so that she could serve first as regent to a boy emperor and then as emperor herself.

2013, Voyages in World History, page 213:

Where is Sindbad? I have a summons for him direct from the galactic emperor herself. He is to be brought here immediately to give an explanation for his recent actions.

2016, Commander Pakydus, Sindbad & the 7 Galaxies:

Any monarch ruling an empire, irrespective of gender, with "empress" contrasting to mean the consort of an emperor.

The Investiture Controversy was a conflict between the Emperor and the Pope.

(political theory) Specifically, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire; the world-monarch.

But marbles are not only used to play games: they are also traded. In this market, the value of the different kinds of marbles (oilies, emperors, etc.) is determined by local supply and demand and not by the price of the marbles […]

2001, Paul Webley, The economic psychology of everyday life, page 39:

A large, relatively valuable marble in children's games.


empress

From Middle English emperice, emperesse, from Anglo-Norman and Old French empereriz, from Latin imperatrix, equivalent to emperor + -ess. Doublet of imperatrix. Compare modern French impératrice.

Sit downe by her: adorned with my Crowne,
As if thou wert the Empreſſe of the world.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

The female monarch (ruler) of an empire.


principality

en-noun

principality (countable and uncountable, plural principalities)

From Middle English principalte, principalite, from Anglo-Norman principalté, Middle French principalté, from Late Latin prīncipālitās, from Latin prīncipālis (“principal”) + -tās. Equivalent to principal + -ity.

At this time Russia consisted of a dozen or so principalities, which were frequently at war with one another.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 14:

(countable) A region or sovereign nation headed by a prince or princess.

(theology, countable) A spiritual being, specifically in Christian angelology, the third lowest level of angels, ranked above archangels and below powers.

(obsolete) The state of being a prince or ruler; sovereignty, absolute authority.

(now rare) The state of being principal; pre-eminence.


empire

/ˈɛm.paɪ̯ə̯/

From Middle English empire, from Old French empire, empere, from Latin imperium, inperium (“command, control, dominion, sovereignty, a dominion, empire”), from imperare, inperare (“to command, order”), from in (“in, on”) + parare (“to make ready, order”). Doublet of empery and imperium.

the Russian empire

States and empires fail when they are no longer the solution, they are the problem.

2022 February 7, Charles Hugh Smith, How Empires Die:

A political state, often a monarchy, that has achieved a much greater current size than its initial size by conquering surrounding territories, cities or nations.


monarchy

monarchy (countable and uncountable, plural monarchies)

From Old French monarchie, from Late Latin monarchia, from Ancient Greek μοναρχία (monarkhía), from μόνος (mónos, “only”) + ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “power, authority”). By surface analysis, mon- (“one, single”) + -archy (“rule, command”).

surf

An absolute monarchy is a monarchy where the monarch is legally the ultimate authority in all temporal matters.

A constitutional monarchy is a monarchy in which the monarch's power is legally constrained, ranging from where minor concessions have been made to appease certain factions to where the monarch is a figurehead with all real power in the hands of a legislative body.

He that with ſhepheards and a litle ſpoyle,
Durſt in diſdaine of wrong and tyrannie,
Defend his freedome gainſt a Monarchie:
What will he doe ſupported by a king?

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:

A government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).

monargie

form of government with a hereditary head of state

What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

The territory ruled over by a monarch; a kingdom.

A form of government where sovereignty is embodied by a single ruler in a state and his high aristocracy representing their separate divided lands within the state and their low aristocracy representing their separate divided fiefs.

States based on a system of governance headed by a king or a queen.


nobleman

The King [...] sit at the head of the royal table with his elder warriors and advisers, noblemen and noblewomen.

2019, Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Hamish Hamilton, page 377:

A peer; an aristocrat; ranks range from baron to king to emperor.

نَبِيل

man of noble rank, title, or status; peer; aristocrat

Royal and noble ranks on Wikipedia.Wikipedia


baron

From Middle English baroun, from Old French baron, from Latin barōnem, from Proto-West Germanic *barō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with Old High German baro (“human being, man, freeman”), Old English bora (“a man who bears responsibility, one who is in charge, a ruler”), and perhaps to Old English beorn (“man, warrior”). Used in early Germanic law in the sense of "man, human being".
A Celtic origin has also been suggested; see the quote under sense 3 of Latin barō. However, the OED takes the hypothetical Proto-Celtic *bar- (“hero”) to be a figment.

cog

A male member of the lowest rank of English nobility (the equivalent rank in Scotland is lord).

There were a few exotics among them — some South American boys, sons of Argentine beef barons, one or two Russians, and even a Siamese prince, or someone who was described as a prince.

c. 1948, George Orwell, Such, Such Were the Joys:

British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.

2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

(by extension) A person of great power in society, especially in business and politics.


baroness

/ˌbæ.ɹəˈnɛs/

From Middle English baronesse; equivalent to baron + -ess.


duke

From Old French duc, through Middle English duk, duke, from Latin dux, ducis. Displaced native Old English heretoga. Was present as duc in late Old English, from the same Latin source. Doublet of dux, doge, and Duce.
The “fist” sense is thought to be Cockney rhyming slang where “Duke(s) of York” = fork. Fork is itself Cockney slang for hand, and thus fist.


duchess

From Middle English duchesse, from Old French duchesse.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have ended months of intense speculation by announcing they are expecting their first child, but were forced to share their news earlier than hoped because of the Duchess's admission to hospital on Monday.

2012 December 3, Caroline Davies, The Guardian:


duchy

From Middle English duche, from Anglo-Norman duché, from Old French duc, or from Medieval Latin ducātus, from Latin dux. Doublet of ducat.

A dominion or region ruled by a duke or duchess.


countess

From Anglo-Norman cuntesse, Old French contesse, from Latin comitessa; equivalent to count + -ess. Doublet of contessa.

Elizabeth Millicent Leveson-Gower is 24th Countess of Sutherland; her son will be the 25th Earl.

A woman holding the rank of count or earl in her own right; a female holder of an earldom.

earless

the wife of an earl, a female holder of an earldom


earl

From Middle English erl, erle, from Old English eorl, from Proto-West Germanic *erl, from Proto-Germanic *erlaz (compare Old Saxon erl, Old Norse jarl), from Proto-Germanic *erōną, *arōną (compare Old Norse jara (“fight, battle”)). Doublet of jarl.
Unrelated to ealdorman (“alderman”).

(nobility) A British or Irish nobleman next in rank above a viscount and below a marquess; equivalent to a European count. A female using the style is termed a countess.

эрл

in Anglo-Saxon England before Norman conquest


monarch

From Middle French monarque, from Late Latin monarcha, from Ancient Greek μονάρχης (monárkhēs), variant of μόναρχος (mónarkhos, “sole ruler”), from μόνος (mónos, “only”) + ἀρχός (arkhós, “leader”), equivalent to mono- + -arch.
* (butterfly): See monarch butterfly.

Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd / Than is your Majesty.

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 25:

constitutional monarchy
constitutional monarchy

The ruler of an absolute monarchy or the head of state of a constitutional monarchy.

But I know the monarchs are close by, their orange-and-black wings folded, dusted, and baked by heat, ready to flee south.

2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 223:

Danaus plexippus
Danaus plexippus#Translingual

A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and others of genus Danaus, found primarily in North America.


tenno

Borrowed from Japanese 天皇(てんのう) (tennō), from Middle Chinese 天皇 (tʰen ɦwɑŋ) with the original sense of “heavenly sovereign”.

The emperor of Japan as head of state and the head of the Japanese imperial family.


Savoy

From French Savoy, Savoie, from the Roman name, Late Latin Sapaudia.

(historical) A historical region shared between the modern countries of France, Italy and Switzerland.

Alternative form of Savoie, a department of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France.


Savoy

en-noun

Savoy (countable and uncountable, plural Savoys)

A member of an Italian noble family which became the ruling (hereditary) dynasty of Sardinia and later of Italy


czar

See tsar. The spelling czar, the older spelling in English, comes from Sigismund von Herberstein's Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii ("Notes on Muscovite Affairs") of 1549. The alternative tsar began to replace it in the 19th century.

Note therfore that Czar in the Ruthens tounge signifieth a kynge, wheras in the language of the Slauons, Pollons, Bohemes, and other, the same woorde Czar, signifieth Cesar by whiche name Themperours haue byn commonly cauled.

1555, Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, translated by Richard Eden, The decades of the newe worlde or west India, London: William Powell, page 290:

To understand Russia, you have to dive deep into its history — boyars and czars, Pushkin and Pasternak, Stalin and Stalingrad.

2016-12-12, Editorial Team, “Editorial: Trump, Putin and the risks of a reset”, in Chicago Tribune:

Alternative spelling of tsar (especially common in American English)


tsar

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: ज़ार (zār), त्सार (tsār)

Urdu: زار (zār), تسار (tsār)

→ Irish: sár

→ Japanese: ツァー (tsā)

Borrowed from Russian царь (carʹ), from Old East Slavic цьсарь (cĭsarĭ), from Proto-Slavic *cěsařь, from a Germanic language, from Proto-Germanic *kaisaraz, from Latin Caesar. Doublet of kaiser and Caesar. The spelling tsar began to replace the older czar in the nineteenth century. Compare Byzantine Greek Τζαῖσαρ (Tzaîsar).

and why, in the name of common sense, should the English call the Czar (tsar) of Russia raze?

1832 August 1, W. Barnes, “On the Origin of Language”, in Gentleman's Magazine, London, page 129:

(historical) An emperor of Russia (1547 to 1917) and of some South Slavic states.


tsarina

head

tsarina (plural tsarinas, masculine tsar)

Via Italian czarina or Spanish czarina, from German Czarin, Zarin, feminine form of Czar, Zar.

The biggest Russian czarina was Catherine the Great, a German, who incidentally made Crimea part of Russia.

2022 January 25, Katrin Bennhold, quoting Matthias Platzeck, “Where Is Germany in the Ukraine Standoff? Its Allies Wonder.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(historical) An empress of several Eastern European countries, especially Russia, or the wife of a tsar.


interregnum

en-noun

interregnum (plural interregnums or interregna)

interregnums (plural)
interregna (plural)

/ˌɪntəɹˈɹɛɡnəm/

فترة

period of time between the end of a sovereign's reign and the accession of another sovereign

The Sasanian Interregnum of 628–632

It was not till the kings had been shorn of power and the interregnum of sham democracy had set in, leaving no virile force in the state or the world to resist the money power, that the opportunity for a world-wide plutocratic despotism arrived.

1897, Edward Bellamy, Equality, Chapter 15:

Another element leading to the quick-out-of-the-gate second Trump term took place during the four-year interregnum of President Joe Biden.

2025 January 30, Linda Feldmann, “Understanding the Trump chaos: It’s about wielding executive power”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

The period of time between the end of a sovereign or political leader's reign and the accession of another.

(politics) A period of time during which normal executive leadership is suspended or interrupted.

безвластие

Is it not Pelham who wonders what becomes of servants when they are not wanted;—whether, like the tones of an instrument, they exist but when called for? About servants we will not decide; but that some such interregnum certainly occurs in female existence on rising from table, no one can doubt who ever noted the sound of the dining and the silence of the drawing-room.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 224:

This was in that strange pause of the storm which is its most remarkable feature in the South—that singular interregnum of the winds, when, after giving repeated notice of their most terrific action, they seem almost to forget their purpose, and for a few moments appear to slumber in their inactivity.

1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XIV, page 179:

Between the end of the Fowler régime in 1931 and the advent of Stanier in 1932, there was a short interregnum during which Ernest Lemon was in charge, with Ernest Beames as his principal aide-de-camp.

1946 May and June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 146:

All I know is that you could, if you wanted to, find the answers to all sorts of difficult questions buried in that terrible war-torn interregnum between the first pubic hair and the first soiled Durex.

1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 17:

(by extension) An intermission in any order of succession; any breach of continuity in action or influence.


imperial

imperial (countable and uncountable, plural imperials)

From Middle English imperial, from Old French imperial, from Latin imperiālis (“of the empire or emperor, imperial”), from imperium (“empire, imperial government”) + -ālis, from imperō (“command, order”), from im- (“form of in”) + parō (“prepare, arrange; intend”). Displaced Old English cāserlīċ.

der

There are who say the sonnet's meted maze
Is all too fettered for the poet's powers,
Compelled to crowd his flush and airy flowers
Like pots of tall imperials, ill at ease.

1816, John Freeman Milward Dovaston, The Sonnet:


orb

From Middle English orbe, from Old French orbe, from Latin orbis (“circle, orb”). Compare orbit.

A translucent sphere appearing in flash photography (Orb (optics))


shah

shahs (plural)
shahy (plural)
shahiv (plural)


crown prince

A person expected to inherit or take over an enterprise or undertaking once its current manager retires or dies.

繼承人 /继承人

person expected to take over an enterprise


tsarevich

en-noun

tsarevich (plural tsareviches or tsarevichs or tsarevichi)

tsareviches (plural)
tsarevichs (plural)
tsarevichi (plural)

/ˈzɑːɹəvɪtʃ/

Borrowed from Russian царе́вич (carévič).

The tsesarevich (crown prince of the Russia Empire)


aristocrat

/ˈæɹɪstəˌkɹæt/

/əˈɹɪstəˌkɹæt/

From French aristocrate (“aristocrat”), attested once in the 16th century but recoined in the Revolutionary era, from aristocratie (“aristocracy”), from Medieval Latin aristocratia, from Ancient Greek ἀριστοκρατία (aristokratía), from ἄριστος (áristos, “best”) (compare Old English ar) + κράτος (krátos, “rule”). By surface analysis, aristo- + -crat.

der

ἀριστοκρατία

One of the aristocracy, nobility, or people of rank in a community; one of a ruling class; a noble (originally in Revolutionary France).


aristocratic

en-adj

aristocratic (comparative more aristocratic, superlative most aristocratic)

more aristocratic (comparative)
most aristocratic (superlative)

/ˌæɹɪstəˈkɹætɪk/

From French aristocratique, from Ancient Greek ἀριστοκρατικός (aristokratikós). By surface analysis, aristo- + -cratic.

der

ἀριστοκρατικός

An aristocratic measure.

Aristocratic pride or manners.

Similar to the aristocracy; characteristic of, the aristocracy.

aristokratiese

partaking of aristocracy; befitting aristocracy


royal

en-adj

royal (comparative royaler or royaller, superlative royalest or royallest)

royaler (comparative)
royaller (comparative)
royalest (superlative)
royallest (superlative)

From Middle English royal, from Old French roial (Modern French royal), from Latin rēgālis, from rēx (“king”). Doublet of regal (“befitting a king”), real (“unit of currency”), ariary, and riyal. Cognate with Spanish real. Displaced native Old English cynelīċ.

mbretëror

of or relating to a monarch or his family

How doth that royal Merchant good Anthonio;

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 175, column 2:

Having the air or demeanour of a monarch; illustrious; magnanimous; of more than common size or excellence.

royal mast;  royal sail

(nautical) In large sailing ships, of a mast right above the topgallant mast and its sails.

röijeli-

nautical: of a mast right above the topgallant mast and its sails


royal

(paper) A standard size of writing paper, measuring 24 by 19 inches.

in ten days after we spoke the Solon, so rapid was his recovery, that, from lying helpless and almost hopeless in his berth, he was at the mast-heId, furling a royal.

1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC:

(nautical, sailing) In large sailing ships, square sail over the topgallant sail.

(card games) In auction bridge, a royal spade.


grand duke

Old French grant duc, from Latin grandis + dux, from the verb duco (“to lead”).

Son, daughter, or grandchild of a czar (emperor) of the Russian Empire. (A more literal translation of the Russian is grand prince.)


lodge

→ Dutch: lodge

From Middle English logge, from Old French loge (“arbour, covered walk-way”), from Frankish *laubijā (“shelter; arbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *laub (“leaf; folliage”) (whence English leaf).
See also (compare cognate Medieval Latin lobia, laubia; also Old High German louba (“porch, gallery”) (German Laube (“bower, arbor”)), Old High German loub (“leaf, foliage”), Old English lēaf (“leaf, foliage”). Doublet of loggia and lobby.

cog

The tribe consists of about two hundred lodges, that is, of about a thousand individuals.

An indigenous American home, such as tipi or wigwam. By extension, the people who live in one such home; a household.

(historical) A family of Native Americans, or the persons who usually occupy an Indian lodge; as a unit of enumeration, reckoned from four to six persons.


boyar

From Russian боя́ре (bojáre), plural of боя́рин (bojárin).

Boris had abdicated in 889, leaving the throne to his son Vladimir, who had immediately identified himself with the boyar aristocracy which Boris had done his utmost to crush.

1997, John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium, Penguin, published 1998, page 159:

A long series of wars was fought in the sixteenth century to keep Polish influence at bay in the West Russian lands, and prevent it from seducing Muscovy's restless boyars, the warrior-barons whose independence the grand dukes were determined to crush.

2007, John Darwin, After Tamerlane, Penguin, published 2008, page 68:

some of his family looked to Orthodox Christianity to sustain them, and not only many of his boyars but most of his subjects were Orthodox Christians.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 514:

(historical) A member of a rank of aristocracy (second only to princes) in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia and Romania.


hetman

From Polish hetman, probably from Middle High German houbetman, heuptman (“commander”), from Old High German houbitman, from Proto-West Germanic *haubidamann. Compare modern German Hauptmann (“captain”), Haupt, Mann. The Polish e in hetman attests to a borrowing from an East Central German dialect, in which Middle High German -öu- gives -ē-. Doublet of head man.


Tory

From Irish tóraí (“pursuer”), from tóir (“pursuit”). The first recorded use in English is from a 1646 letter by James Butler ("Earl of Ormond") to a Colonel O' Brien, describing bandits and thieves on main roadways.

(US, historical) A loyal British subject during the American Revolution.

(US, historical) A Union sympathizer in the Confederate States during the American Civil War.


Tory

Short for Tory Island, County Donegal, Ireland.


coronation

/kɒɹəˈneɪʃn̩/

/ˌkɔɹəˈneɪʃ(ə)n/

Cecil Beaton
Coronation of the Virgin
Elizabeth II

From Late Middle English coronacion, coronacioun (“crowning of a sovereign or his consort; powers conferred by this ceremony; crowning of the Virgin Mary; (figuratively) placing of a crown of thorns on Jesus; act of rewarding a person with eternal life, happiness, honour, etc.”) [and other forms], borrowed from Anglo-Norman coronacion and Old French coronacion, coronation, from Late Latin *corōnātiōnem, from Latin corōnō (“to coronate, crown (with a crown, garland, etc.)”) + -ātiōnem (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or their results). Corōnō is derived from corōna (“garland, wreath; crown”).

ref

From the collection of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, Italy.

nb...

corenacioun, corenacyon, coronacyon, coronacyone, coronatyown

der

King Charles III’s coronation is to be much less elaborate compared to his mother’s.

Some reaſons of this double Corronation / I haue poſſeſſt you vvith, and thinke them ſtrong.

c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 15, column 1:

[John] Fal[staff]. VVhat diſeaſe haſt thou? / [Peter] Bul[lcalf]. A horſon cold ſir, a cough ſir, vvhich I cought vvith ringing in the Kings affaires vpon his coronation day ſir.

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

[T]he Lady Anne, / VVhom the King hath in ſecrecie long married, / This day vvas vievv'd in open, as his Queene, / Going to Chappell; and the voyce is novv / Onely about her Corronation.

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 223, column 1:

It is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens, even modern ones, a certain curious process of seasoning them for their functions is gone through. […] Certain I am, however, that a king's head is solemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad. […] But the only thing to be considered here, is this—what kind of oil is used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear's oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil. What then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured, unpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils? Think of that, ye loyal Britons! we whalemen supply your kings and queens with coronation stuff!

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Postscript”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 124:

[George Friederic] Handel's coronation anthem, God save the King, was played by Dr. Camidge [i.e., John Camidge II] on the organ, with sublime effect. The minister and the music were made for each other.

1856, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Religion”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, pages 219–220:

Over the mantelpiece, which is high, with brass candlesticks and two ‘Coronation’ tumblers in enamel, hangs a picture of Venice, from one of [William Thomas] Stead’s Christmas Numbers – nevertheless, satisfactory enough.

c. 1909 (date written; published 1934), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “A Collier’s Friday Night”, in Three Plays: A Collier’s Friday Night, The Daughter-in-Law, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1969, →OCLC, act I, page 19:

King Charles [III] and Queen Camilla have been crowned on a historic day of pageantry, capped by cheering by crowds in front of Buckingham Palace. Thousands packed the Mall despite the rain, after a deeply religious Coronation service at Westminster Abbey and a huge procession through London. […] The Coronation did not formally change the King's status. Charles became King of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms in September, when his mother Queen Elizabeth II died after 70 years on the throne. […] This time, the ceremony emphasised diversity and inclusion, with more multi-faith elements than any previous coronation, with contributions from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh representatives.

2023 May 6, Sean Coughlan, “Coronation: King Charles and Queen Camilla Crowned in Historic Ceremony”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 2023-05-06:

(literally, also attributively) An act of investing with a crown; a crowning.

(specifically, also attributively) An act or the ceremony of formally investing a sovereign or the sovereign's consort with a crown and other insignia of royalty, on or shortly after their accession to the sovereignty.

bekroning

act or the ceremony of formally investing a sovereign or the sovereign’s consort with a crown and other insignia of royalty


pretender

/pɹɪˈtɛndəɹ/

A person who professes beliefs and opinions that they do not hold.


dynasty

From Middle French dynastie, from Late Latin dynastia, from Ancient Greek δυναστεία (dunasteía, “power, dominion”).

During the Ming dynasty, China was ruled by the Zhu family.

(East Asian history) The polity or historical era under the rule of a certain dynasty.

朝代

era or polity under a certain dynasty, especially in East Asian history


noble

en-adj

noble (comparative nobler or more noble, superlative noblest or most noble)

nobler (comparative)
more noble (comparative)
noblest (superlative)
most noble (superlative)

From Middle English, from Old French noble, from Latin nōbilis (“knowable, known, well-known, famous, celebrated, high-born, of noble birth, excellent”), from nōscere, gnōscere (“to know”).
False cognate of Arabic نبيل (nabīl). Displaced native Middle English athel, from Old English æþele.

der

noble blood; a noble personage

Of exalted rank; of or relating to the nobility; distinguished from the masses by birth, station, or title; highborn.


reign

From Middle English regnen, from Old French reignier, from the Latin verb rēgnō, and the noun rēgnum. Doublet of regnum. Displaced native Old English rīċe (“a reign”) and ricsian (“to reign”).

The reign of Victoria was a long one.

The period during which a monarch rules.

And the Fox guileful, and most covetous; / That neither pleased was, to have the reign / Twixt them divided into even twain

1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:

The territory or sphere over which a kingdom; empire; realm; dominion, etc. is ruled.


reign

en-verb

reign (third-person singular simple present reigns, present participle reigning, simple past and past participle reigned)

reigns (present singular third-person)
reigning (participle present)
reigned (participle past)
reigned (past)

He reigned in an autocratic manner.

Both we will raigne as Conſuls of the earth,
And mightie kings ſhall be our Senators.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

(intransitive) To exercise sovereign power, to rule as a monarch.

Silence reigned.

Silence reigned, broken only by the hideous screeching of vultures and the sound of a lawn-mower being used in the hospital grounds.

1936, F.J. Thwaites, The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards Publishing, published 1940, page 58:

Unfortunately – and ironically – the word ‘system’ itself is used in such a wide variety of contexts within animal science, as indeed it is in virtually every domain of human activity, that confusion reigns about what a systems-oriented research programme actually looks like and what systems-oriented animal scientists actually do.

2007, Richard Bawden, “Redesigning Animal Agriculture: a Systemic Perspective”, in David L. Swain, Ed Charmley, John Steel, Shaun Coffey, editors, Redesigning Animal Agriculture: The Challenge of the 21st Century, CABI, page 1:

To be a dominant quality of a place or situation; to prevail, predominate, rule.


autarchy

en-noun

autarchy (countable and uncountable, plural autarchies)

From Medieval Latin autarchia, from Koine Greek αὐταρχία (autarkhía, “absolute power, sovereignty, autocracy”), from αὔταρχος (aútarkhos, “autocratic”), from αὐτ- (aut-, “self”) + ἄρχω (árkhō, “to rule, govern”).

af

Like Philip's, Franco's autarchy was shrouded in religiosity—not Christianity alone, but also a sort of dim Wagnerian vision of hero-gods and Valhallas, a gloomy level of devotion on which paganism, Catholicism and the apotheosis of the State could conveniently be mingled.

1964, Jan Morris, “Envoi: State of Being”, in Spain, Faber and Faber, published 2008, →ISBN:

(government) Autocracy (absolute rule by a single person).


aristocracy

en-noun

aristocracy (countable and uncountable, plural aristocracies)

Borrowed from Middle French aristocratie, from Medieval Latin aristocratia, from Ancient Greek ἀριστοκρατίᾱ (aristokratíā, “the rule of the best“, that is, “the best-born”, “nobility”), from ἄριστος (áristos, “best, noblest”) + -κρατίᾱ (-kratíā), from κράτος (krátos, “power, rule”). By surface analysis, aristo- + -cracy.

der

ἀριστοκρατίᾱ

But when Nietzsche has the incredible lack of humour and lack of imagination to ask us to believe that his aristocracy is an aristocracy of strong muscles or an aristocracy of strong wills, it is necessary to point out the truth. It is an aristocracy of weak nerves.

That, then, which is called aristocracy in some countries and nobility in others arose out of the governments founded upon conquest.

The nobility, or the hereditary ruling class.

adel

the nobility or the hereditary ruling class


regal

en-adj

regal (comparative more regal, superlative most regal)

more regal (comparative)
most regal (superlative)

From Middle English regal, from Old French regal (“regal, royal”), from Latin rēgālis (“royal, kingly”), from rex (“king”); also regere (“to rule”). Doublet of royal (“belonging to a monarch”), real (“unit of currency”), ariary, and riyal. Cognate with Spanish real.

doublet

regal authority

the regal title

He made a scorn of his regal oath.

1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

The [Washington] Posts proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal' Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.

2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

Terrific movement from The Queen here. Gets behind the defender, goes one way then cuts back inside. Regal attacking play.

2018 July 14, Gary Lineker, Twitter, retrieved 2018-07-15:

Kwarteng said he had urged Truss to “slow down” over reforms, but a cabinet minister told the FT that she felt “invincible, almost regal”.

2022 December 10, Harry Taylor, “Liz Truss and I ‘got carried away’ writing mini-budget, admits Kwasi Kwarteng”, in The Guardian:

Befitting a king, queen, emperor, or empress.


regal

From Middle English regal, from Middle French régale, possibly from Old French regol (“a gutter, channel”). Doublet of rail, regula, rigol, and rule.

(music) A small, portable organ whose sound is produced by brass beating reeds without amplifying resonators. Its tone is keen and rich in harmonics. The regal was common in the 16th and 17th centuries, and has been revived for the performance of music from those times.

(music) An organ stop of the reed family, furnished with a normal beating reed, but whose resonator is a fraction of its natural length. In the 16th and 17th centuries these stops took a multitude of forms. Today only one survives that is of universal currency, the so-called vox humana.


Orange Order

Its name is a tribute to the Dutch-born Protestant king William of Orange, who defeated the army of Catholic king James VII & II in the Williamite War in Ireland (1688–1691).

A Northern Ireland religious and political organisation, loyal to the British crown and with strong anti-Catholicism policies.


globus cruciger

en-noun

globus cruciger (plural globus crucigers)

/ˌɡləʊ̯bəs ˈkɹuːsɪd͡ʒə/

From Latin globus cruciger (“globe bearing a cross”).

bor

A globe topped by a cross, used as a symbol of royal power.


crown jewels

The crown jewels in the United Kingdom are heavily guarded and anyone trying to steal them will certainly have a hard time.

(literally) The jewelry that accompany the office of rulership in a monarchy, i.e. crown, scepter, signet ring, etc.


viscount

From Anglo-Norman viscounte, from Medieval Latin vicecomes, from Latin vice + comes. Equivalent to vice- + count. Doublet of vicecomes and vicomte.

(entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called earls and counts.


potentate

From Middle English potentat, from Old French, from Late Latin potentātus (“rule, political power”), from Latin potēns (“powerful, strong”), the active present participle of possum (“I am able”).


basileus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βασιλεύς (basileús, “chief, king”).

bor

For two centuries its towers and domes were to rise in the heavens, drawing the attention of Emperors and Basilei, of Popes and Patriarchs.

Although portrayals of basileis of the eleventh century wearing the loros in the traditional manner are not lacking, I cannot cite a Byzantine example of metropolitan origin later than 1100.

1990, Ernst Kitzinger, The Mosaics of St. Mary’s of the Admiral in Palermo, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, →ISBN, page 192:

The revitalization of the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of the energetic and capable basilei of the Comnens dynasty: Alexios I (1081-1118), John II (1118-1143) and Manuel (1143-1180), and the wars with a Rum Sultanate troubled by dynastic fights drastically diminished its possessions in Anatolia.

2003, Victor Spinei, The Great Migrations in the East and South East of Europe from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century, Romanian Cultural Institute, →ISBN, page 193:

It is quite easy to establish the identity of these “Roman princes” who reoccupied Pannonia after Attila’s death: they were the basilei from Constantinople who, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, claimed to be the only successors of the Caesars (around the turn of the 9ᵗʰ century they began to call themselves “basilei of the Romans”—“basileis ton Romanon” or “Romaion”).

2007, Transylvanian Review, volume 16, Romanian Cultural Foundation, page 16:

In our third example, the tyrant Nabis usurped power from the traditional, dual basileis of Sparta, then had them executed.

2017, Michael Martin, City of the Sun: Development and Popular Resistance in the Pre-Modern West, New York, N.Y.: Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 64:

The basileis of the Iron Age were now replaced with various appointed and elected magistrates.

2020, David B. Small, “Institutional Evolution of Ancient Greece”, in Dmitri M[ikhailovich] Bondarenko, Stephen A. Kowalewski, David B. Small, editors, The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures), Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 274:

It would probably be worth seeking a possible connection-and-overlay between the name of one of the Byzantine basilei of the 9th century and the godfather of Boris I, Michael III, and that of the Bulgarian ruler Boris-Michael himself, who also lived in that age.

2020, Tsvetelin Stepanov, translated by Daria Manova, Waiting for the End of the World: European Dimensions, 950–1200 (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450; 57), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 251:

“Peter and Maria basilei of Bugaria,” “Peter and Maria in Christ autocrats of the Bulgarians,” and “Peter and Maria in Christ august autocrats and basilei.”

2023, Christian Raffensperger, Rulers and Rulership in the Arc of Medieval Europe, 1000-1200, Abingdon, Oxon, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:


marquess

See marquis for etymology. Note also that marquess is very unusual in the English language in that it ends in -ess but is a masculine term. The title is granted only to males (the female equivalent is marchioness).

A title of nobility for a man ranking beneath a duke and above an earl.

Anne Boleyn was created w:Marquess of Pembroke in 1532


Palace of Westminster

An extensive building on the north bank of the River Thames in London, housing the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Paleis van Westminster

building in London housing the House of Commons and House of Lords


philosopher king

en-noun

philosopher king (plural philosopher kings)

The concept comes from Plato's Republic (circa 375 BCE), which considers the ideal rulers of a city state.

(philosophy) A hypothetical ideal ruler, trained in philosophy, who has a full understanding of the Platonic ideal of the Form of the Good, and uses this for the benefit of the state.


Orange

Some senses from French Orange, from Latin Aurasiō, from Gaulish. Other senses from the common noun orange, ultimately from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”).

der

New Haven County
New Haven County#English

A number of places in the United States:

A town in New Haven County, Connecticut; named for William III of England.

A town in Grafton County, New Hampshire; named for the orange ochre found in the area.

Coshocton County
Coshocton County#English

An unincorporated community in Coshocton County, Ohio.


R

(monarchy) rex (“king”) or regina (“queen”); the initial by which a British monarch signs documents after his or her name


White

en-proper noun

White (countable and uncountable, plural Whites)

* As an English surname, from Middle English White, as a nickname for someone with white hair or pale complexion; in some cases from a personal name of the same meaning. See the modern adjective white.
* Also as an English surname, from Old English *wiht (“bend”), found only in placenames, a derivative of the verb wican (“to yield, bend”); compare Wight.
* As a Scottish Gaelic and Irish surname, used as a translation of several Gaelic names containing the element bán and geal, including Mac Giolla bháin (McElwain, Kilbane), Ó Gealagáin (Galligan), Bán (Bane), and Ó Banáin (Bannon).
* Also as a Scottish and Irish surname, an Anglicization of Irish de Faoite, itself from Anglo-Norman le White, le Whyte, from the same source as the English surname.

White (disambiguation)#Places in the United States

A minor city in Bartow County, Georgia; named for its first postmaster.


Moghul

Borrowed from Iranian Persian مغول (moğul) (for the spellings moghul and mogul) or from Classical Persian مغول (muğūl, muğōl) and Urdu مغل (muġal) (for other spellings), an Arabic and Persian corruption of Mongol, ultimately from Middle Mongol ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ (mongɣol). More at Mughal.


Safavid

From Persian صفوی (Safavi) + -id, from Arabic صَفَوِيّ (Ṣafawiyy), from صَفِيّ (Ṣafiyy, “Safi-ad-Din Ardabili”) + ـَوـ (-aw-, interfix) + ـِيّ (-iyy, “-i, -y”, suffix forming adjectives and relational nouns).

(informal) A member of the Safavid Empire, an Iranian.


Umayyad

Of or relating to the Umayyad dynasty, which ruled the Umayyad caliphate from Damascus between 661 and 744 then from Harran until 750, and al-Andalus between 756 and 1031.


graf

From German Graf (“count”). Doublet of graaf and grave.

Without ceremony, the Graf, on his entering the drawing-room, seated himself at the piano-forte, and proposed affording his new friends "a leetle example" how music was performed in Hungary.

1843 February, "Graf de Tropp", in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume 27, [books.google.com/books?id=9ZUtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA200 page 200]

(uncommon, now historical) A German or Austrian count.


regent

/ˈɹiːd͡ʒənt/

From Middle English regent, from Anglo-Norman regent, Middle French regent, and their source, Latin regēns (“ruling; ruler, governor, prince”), present participle of regō (“I govern, I steer”).

der

One who rules in place of the monarch, especially because the monarch is too young, absent, or disabled.


autocracy

en-noun

autocracy (countable and uncountable, plural autocracies)

→ Malay: autokrasi

/ɔːˈtɒkɹəsi/

From auto- + -cracy, from Ancient Greek αὐτοκρατία (autokratía, “A system of government by one person with absolute power.”), from αὐτός (autós, “single, self, same, alone”) + κράτος (krátos, “power”) + -ία (-ía, “feminine abstract nouns suffix”); see also Ancient Greek αὐτοκρατής (autokratḗs, “one who governs alone”).

der

(uncountable) A form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual.


royalty

en-noun

royalty (countable and uncountable, plural royalties)

→ Danish: royalty

→ German: Royalty

→ Italian: royalty

→ Norwegian Bokmål: royalty

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: royalty

→ Portuguese: royalty

→ Swedish: royalty

From Middle English royaltee, roialtee, royalte, from Old French roialté, roiauté, realté (compare earlier Old French realted (“realm, kingdom”)), from Vulgar Latin *rēgālitās, from Latin rēgālis, equivalent to royal + -ty. Doublet of regality.

(Scotland, historical) The bounds of a royal burgh.


nobility

nobility (countable and uncountable, plural nobilities)

From Old French nobilité, from Latin nobilitas.

(uncountable) The quality of being noble.


duc

From French duc. Doublet of doge, duke, and dux.

Coordinate term: duchesse

The ambition of modern ducs and duchesses is not to appear as heroes and heroines of historic renown, but to represent gods and goddesses and fairies, buds and blossoms from the garden, starry constellations from the celestial world.

1868 May, “Our Monthly Gossip”, in Lippincott’s Magazine of Literature, Science and Education, volume I, page 560, column 1:

Ary Scheffer, the drawing-master of the young Orleans princesses, offered to go with Thiers and procure him an audience of the duc or duchesse, or Madame Adélaïde.

1877 December 15, Emily Crawford, “M. Thiers: A Sketch from Life”, in Littell’s Living Age, volume CXXXV / fifth series, volume XX, number 1748, Boston, Mass.: Littell and Gay, page 679, column 2:

“This is an outrage!” he said, speaking in the justly incensed tone which French ducs always employ when they have had woollen rabbits shot off their heads.

1932, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Hot Water”, in Collier’s, volume 90, page 25:

I had persistently applied myself to learn from the old ducs and duchesses who had been best-informed on the court of their time.

1963, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, translated by Sanche de Gramont, “How Saint-Simon Became Interested in Ducal Dignities (1711)”, in The Age of Magnificence: The Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →LCCN, part six (Saint-Simon as a Writer), page 294:

Princes and princesses, ducs and duchesses were privileged to seat themselves on the traditional tabourets; comtes and comtesses, barons and baronnes, chevaliers and chevalières made do with the lesser pliants.

1967, Hubert Cole, “King Henry I”, in Christophe: King of Haiti, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, page 208:

After becoming the familiar of the ducs and duchesses, the comtes and comtesses he would draw upon, splice, and reshape for his epic novel, he withdrew abruptly following the second trial of Alfred Dreyfus in 1899.

1977, R[ichard] W[arrington] B[aldwin] Lewis, “Within the Tide”, in Edith Wharton: A Biography, New York, N.Y.: Harper Colophon, →ISBN, section V (The War Years: 1913–1918), page 401:

Marie-Rose had once paid fifty livres she could ill afford to have a dancing master teach Gabrielle all the various bows and curtsies decreed by court etiquette. There was one kind of curtsy for the king and queen, another for princes and princesses of the blood, one for ducs and duchesses, and still another for lesser mortals.

1989, Penelope Williamson, Hearts Beguiled, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 349:

Among the guests are Léon Bourgeois, president of the Chamber of Deputies, the Italian, German and Russian ambassadors, comtesse Greffulhe, the grande-duchesse Vladimir with comtesse Adhéaume de Chevigné, several comtes, comtesses, ducs and duchesses, Anatole France, Gaston Calmette, the baronne Gustave de Rothschild and Reynaldo Hahn, who sings at the piano when the initial hubbub has died down.

1990, Ronald Hayman, “For Le Figaro”, in Proust: A Biography, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III (1896–1905 Breakfast at Night), page 179:

Orléans is the chief town of Loiret, on the Loire, and beneficiary of countless associations with the French aristocracy—even giving its name to ducs and duchesses who influenced the course of the nation’s history.

1999, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Frommer’s France ’99, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Travel, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 251:

It is not recorded that any of the French ducs reacted to this incursion on their territory.

2000, Mary Gentle, The Wild Machines (The Book of Ash; 3), New York, N.Y.: Eos, w:HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 11:

There were marquises and vicomtesses and comtesses, ducs and duchesses, two Russian grand dukes, Marcel Proust, and the most prominent courtesans in Paris.

2003, Patricia Beard, “A Bachelor Abroad, 1899”, in After the Ball: Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905, New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins, →ISBN, part two (The Richest Young Man in New York), page 70:

The court, consisting of ducs and duchesses, comtes and comtesses, had assembled here at Chambord for several months of entertainment.

2006, Linda Lee Chaikin, chapter 2, in Daughter of Silk (The Silk House Series), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, →ISBN, page 35:

The Duc d’Uzès became the first of the French ducs under Louis XIII., taking precedence of the Duc de Luynes, on account of arriving first at the palace, having, according to the historical anecdote, overturned the latter’s carriage in his haste to be first before the king to verify his title.

2006, Charles Gibson, “In Old Provence”, in Little Pilgrimages Among French Inns, New York, N.Y.: Cosimo, Inc., →ISBN, page 385:

‘No one knows how this for distinction came about,’ continued Saint-Simon, ‘and really it’s idiotic. It just means that you have for So-and-so chalked on the door of your room, instead of just So-and-so. Princes of the blood, cardinals, and foreign princes all get a for, and some ducs and duchesses have got them, but it doesn’t mean your room will be any better than anyone else’s, and that’s why I think it’s idiotic . . .’ concluded the duc, himself notoriously niggly about protocol, and incidentally for-less.

2008, Veronica Buckley, “Crusaders”, in Madame de Maintenon: The Secret Wife of Louis XIV, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 326:

The mass ended, and as the courtiers filed out in proper order she noticed Madame La Marechal, Lynette’s mother, still on her knees in the pew, though the line of ducs and duchesses had already passed from the room.

2009, Donna Russo Morin, chapter 17, in The Courtier’s Secret, New York, N.Y.: Kensington Publishing, →ISBN:

Henry had made great gains on a variety of fronts: negotiating artfully between the rival French ducs of Bourgogne and Orléans, and the mentally unstable Valois king, Charles VI, he had seized the opportunities created by their bitter feuds.

2009, Ardis Butterfield, “[Mother Tongues: English and French in fifteenth-century England] Agincourt and its effects”, in The Familiar Enemy: Chaucer, Language and Nation in the Hundred Years War, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part III (Vernacular Subjects), page 314:

There, like the monkeys in my father’s zoo at the palace of Laxenburg, whose antics were displayed for the delight of the Austrian elite, Louis Auguste and I were expected to amuse the crush of ducs and duchesses, marquis and marquises, and comtes and comtesses whose rank accorded them the privilege of watching the heirs to the throne of France play a few rounds of cavagnole with members of the Orléans branch of the Bourbons.

2011, Juliet Grey, “Rien”, in Becoming Marie Antoinette, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 241:

Here, resplendent in their uniforms of office, were the princes and princesses, the ducs and duchesses, the marquises and marchionesses, the maréchals and the generals of the French Army, the prelates of the Holy Roman Church and their mistresses, sycophants and influence peddlers, deposed members of foreign royalty, aged courtiers of Louis the Sun King, current and past court officials, members of the Académie Royale, scientists, philosophers, artists, courtesans, past and present mistresses of the king as well as lesser family and irrelevant nobility from the provinces, all assembled at the glittering court of King Louis XV like overlooked and faded objets d’art in an^([sic]) storeroom.

2015, Alan Gold, chapter 12, in The Pretender’s Lady, New York, N.Y.: Yucca Publishing, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:

She was the eighth child of the duc and duchesse of Enghien and, as a member of the reigning Bourbon house, was styled a princesse du sang, or princess of the blood.

2022, Belinda Scerri, “‘Instructing herself by fad or fancy’: Depictions and Fictions of Connoisseuses and Femmes Savantes in Eighteenth-Century Paris”, in Beatrijs Vanacker, Lieke van Deinsen, editors, Portraits and Poses: Female Intellectual Authority, Agency and Authorship in Early Modern Europe, Leuven: Leuven University Press, →ISBN, part II (Types and Models of Female Intellectual Authority), page 187:


hlaford

Learned borrowing from Old English hlāford. Doublet of lord and laird.

lbor

The King was considered as the hlaford of the nation; and in consequence of that supposition, the security given to inferior hlafords against their particular retainers was in his case extended to all his subjects.

1830, John Allen, “Tardy Growth of Many of the Royal Prerogatives”, in Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England, London: […] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], page 44:

The Eorls constituted the nobility of the land, and were subdivided into two orders, the Hlafords or land-owners, and the Sithcundmen, who were nobles by birth, but less wealthy than the hlafords. To this class, too, belonged the Thanes, who originally were those to whom land was granted, as a feudal tenure; this title, however, in due time became equivalent to Earl, the King’s thane ranking with the hlafords, and the lesser thane with the sithcundmen.

1866, William C. Pearce, Samuel Hague, “Saxon and Danish Period”, in Analysis of English History. A Text-Book for Colleges and Schools., London: Thos. Murby, […], pages 18–19:

In the light of these ecclesiastical donations, the assignment of hides to secular thanes mentioned in the enactments of Ine almost looks like the institution of hlafords over districts rated at a certain number of hides: these hlafords were answerable for a certain proportion of actual settlers on the land they had received, and there is nothing to show that only new colonists were meant:[…]

1905, Paul Vinogradoff, The Growth of the Manor, page 240:


sceptre

From Middle English septre, sceptre, from Old French sceptre, from Latin scēptrum, from Ancient Greek σκῆπτρον (skêptron, “staff, stick, baton”), from σκήπτω (skḗptō, “to prop, to support, to lean upon a staff”).

der

“Divine receptacle of excellence, let it not be deemed impertinent, or deviating from the rules of propriety, if I propound one queſtion which now labours in my breaſt; aſſuring me firſt, you will not let the ſceptre of true judgment depart from your right hand.”

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 11:

To the fleet he came / Bearing rich ranſom glorious to redeem / His daughter, and his hands charged with the wreath / And golden ſceptre of the God shaft-arm’d.

1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book I.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 3:

But what had occupied him most was the robe he was to wear at his coronation, the robe of tissued gold, and the ruby-studded crown, and the sceptre with its rows and rings of pearls.

1891, Oscar Wilde, “The Young King”, in A House of Pomegranates, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine & Co […], →OCLC, page 6:

(British spelling) An ornamental staff held by a ruling monarch as a symbol of power.


scepter

en-verb

scepter (third-person singular simple present scepters, present participle sceptering, simple past and past participle sceptered)

scepters (present singular third-person)
sceptering (participle present)
sceptered (participle past)
sceptered (past)


puri

From Balinese ᬧᬸᬭᬷ (puri), from Old Javanese purī (“palace, royal residence”), from Sanskrit पुरी (purī), पुर् (pur, “stronghold, fortress”), from ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(t)pĺ̥H (“city, fortress, stronghold”). Compare to English polis (“a Greek city-state”).

der

In Bali and other parts of Indonesia, a palace, or other residence of a member of the royal family or ruling class.


comte

Borrowed from French comte. Doublet of comes, conte, and count.


marquis

en-noun

marquis (plural marquises or marquis or (obsolete) marquisses)

marquises (plural)
marquis (plural)
marquisses (obsolete plural)

From Middle English markis, from Old French markis, marchis, from Late Latin marchensis, from Old High German marcha and Frankish *marku, from Proto-Germanic *markō, from Proto-Indo-European *marǵ- (“edge, boundary”).
Meaning is “lord of the march”, in sense of march (“border country”).

der

A nobleman in England, France, and Germany, of a rank next below that of duke, but above a count. Originally, the marquis was an officer whose duty was to guard the marches or frontiers of the kingdom. The office has ceased, and the name is now a mere title conferred by letters patent or letters close.


peerage

en-noun

peerage (countable and uncountable, plural peerages)

From Middle English perage, equivalent to peer + -age. Doublet of parage.

Peers as a group; the titled nobility or aristocracy.


maharaja

/ˌmɑ.hɑˈɹɑː.d͡ʒə/

/ˌmɑ.hɑˈɹɑː.d͡ʒɑ/

/ˌmɑ.həˈɹɑː.d͡ʒə/

Borrowed from Hindi महाराजा (mahārājā). First attested in 1698.

I speak from a very intimate knowledge of their ways and habits after having spent a very happy twenty years amongst them with friends in every degree, from the Maharaja himself to some of the humblest coolies.

1909, John Claude White, Sikhim and Bhutan, pages 7–8:

Benny: Hey, T.C., what's a maharaja?
Top Cat: What's a what?
Benny: A maharaja.
Top Cat: Oh, do I look like Daniel Webster? I didn't write no dictionary.

1961 October 4, “The Maharajah of Pookajee” (2:33 from the start), in Top Cat, season 1, episode 2:

A Hindu monarch ranking above a raja, an emperor.


sultan

sultan (countable and uncountable, plural sultans or (rare, only in certain senses) salateen)

→ Chinese: 蘇丹 /苏丹 (sūdān)

From French sultan, from Ottoman Turkish سلطان (sultan), from Arabic سُلْطَان (sulṭān, “strength, authority, ruler”). (compare Hebrew שִׁלְטוֹן (shiltón) and Hebrew סוּלְטָן (sultán)). Doublet of soldan.

der

Here from the king's mountain view
Here from the wild dream come true
Feast like a sultan, I do
On treasures and flesh never few

A hereditary ruler in various Muslim states (sultanate), varying from petty principalities (as in Yemen), often vassal of a greater ruler, to independent realms, such as Oman, Brunei, Morocco (until 1956) or an empire such as the Turkish Ottoman Empire.


tsarism

en-noun

tsarism (usually uncountable, plural tsarisms)

A supporter of monarchy ruled by a tsar.


Balmoral

Castle name first appears in writing as Bouchmorale in 1451. Formed from a combination of Old Irish both (“hut, bothy, cot; cabin”) and an uncertain second element. The second element may be Pictish, equivalent to Welsh mawr (“large”) + Welsh iâl (“pastureland”).

der

As we climbed the Marykirk Bank Ogilvie spoke of the passes leading over to Deeside, and of the Royal deer forests around Balmoral; then, with mingled pride and modesty, he added, "I've driven the King seven times."

1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:

A castle and associated estate in Aberdeenshire council area, Scotland, that is a private residence of the British sovereign (OS grid ref NO2595).

Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders#English

A suburb of Galashiels, Scottish Borders council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NT4836).


Carolingian

An eponym from Charles Martel, Frankish statesman and grandfather of Charlemagne. Reshaping of earlier Carlovingian.

Any member of a Frankish noble family with its origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the seventh century.


lady-in-waiting

From lady + in + waiting (“attendance, service”).

refn

From the collection of the Musée du Second Empire in the Château de Compiègne, Compiègne, Oise, France.

[T]he electreſs [Sophia Charlotte of Hanover] was heard to ſay to one of her ladies in waiting, "that it vexed her to the very heart to go and act in Pruſſia the theatrical queen along with her Eſop.["]

1751, [Frederick the Great], “Frederick III. the First King of Prussia”, in Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg. From the Earliest Accounts, to the Death of Frederick I. King of Prussia. […], Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, for G. Faulkner […], and Matt[hew] Williamson […], →OCLC, page 100:

This night, after eleven o'clock, as the royal family were returning from Drury-lane theatre, when the carriages had reached the end of John-street, Pall Mall, a stone was flung with such force as to break one of the glass pannels in the coach, in which were their majesties and the lady in waiting; which, after striking the queen on the cheek, fell into lady Harrington's lap.

1796, “Chronicle. [February 1st.]”, in The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1796, 2nd edition, volume XV, London: Printed by B[uchanan] McMillan, […], for the proprietors of Dodsley’s Annual Register, […], published 1807, →OCLC, page 5:

Of a sudden a man leapt up to the top of the wall from the other side, and then, hanging for a moment, dropped lightly upon the grass within. All the ladies-in-waiting shrieked at the suddenness of his coming, but the man ran to the Queen and kneeled at her feet, and she saw it was Robin Hood.

1883, Howard Pyle, “The Chase of Robin Hood”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part seventh, page 250:

The political influence wielded by many of the court ladies, and especially by the first lady-in-waiting (mother of the present Emperor), bears a certain resemblance to that which the eunuchs wielded under the later Manchus at the court of Peking. [...] And behind the 30 ladies-in-waiting there are the rank and file of female palace attendants, some 300, all of Kyoto stock—quite sufficient to keep any conscientious chamberlain on the qui vive.

1920, J[ohn] O[tway] P[ercy] Bland, “[Exhibit G.] Three Palaces.”, in Administration of Immigration Laws: Hearings before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization: House of Representatives, Sixty-sixth Congress, Second Session: […], Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 373:

In the Queen's coach are the Queen's stateroom and bathroom, the Royal Family lounge, lady-in-waiting's compartment and bathroom, and dresser's room. […] Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are accommodated in one coach, and each of the two suites comprises a stateroom with its adjoining bathroom. A bedroom is provided for each of two ladies-in-waiting, and a separate compartment for the maid.

1947 January and February, “South African Royal Train”, in Railway Magazine, page 47:

At last she [Makeda, the Queen of Sheba] was overcome by a desire to go to Jerusalem and see with her own eyes the things about which she had heard. [...] She chose as her companion on the journey her lady-in-waiting, and the two of them travelled in sedan chairs mounted on the backs of camels.

1986 September–October, Harold Courlander, “How Makeda Visited Jerusalem, and How Menelik Became King”, in Robert G. Forman, editor, Michigan Alumnus, volume 93, number 1, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Published by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 37, columns 2–3:

Young girls from wealthy families were often sent to the royal court to help the queen and noblewomen. After becoming a teenager, a girl could then be named a lady-in-waiting. These ladies assisted their mistress in any way and usually went with her when she traveled.

2013, Joanne Mattern, “A Life at Court”, in Dona Herweck Rice, editor, Geoffrey Chaucer: Medieval Writer, Huntington Beach, Calif.: Teacher Created Materials, →ISBN, page 14:

A lady, often a noblewoman, in the household of a queen, princess, or other woman of higher rank who attends her as a personal assistant, generally a role considered an honour.

Château de Compiègne
Compiègne
Eugénie de Montijo
Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Napoleon III

plac'h-enor

lady in the household of a woman of higher rank who attends her as a personal assistant

kamarineiti

woman who is a maid or servant to a lady


Padishah

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish پادشاه (padişah), from Classical Persian پادِشاه (pādišāh) / پادْشاه (pādšāh).

(history) A ruler of a Muslim country or state.

padishah

(historical) a ruler of a Muslim country or state


absolute monarchy

en-noun

absolute monarchy (countable and uncountable, plural absolute monarchies)

A state over which a sole monarch has absolute and unlimited power.

(uncountable) The rule of such a monarch, as a form of government.


Lancaster

From Middle English Lancaster, Loncastre, the name of the Roman fort on the River Lune, from Lune + the Old English suffix ceaster (“town”), found in many placenames.

Several places in the United States:
A locality in Yavapai County, Arizona.

Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County#English

A charter city in Los Angeles County, California.

A tiny city in Kittson County, Minnesota.


monarchist

From French monarchiste, equivalent to monarchy + -ist.

A supporter of, or believer in, monarchy.

монархи́ст

an advocate of, or believer in, monarchy


gentlewoman

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gentlewoman.wav

From Middle English gentilwoman, modelled after gentilman (“gentleman”), equivalent to gentle + -woman.

Gentlewoman: Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon[…]

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:


noblesse oblige

Borrowed from French noblesse oblige (literally “nobility obliges”), primarily used as a phrase. See noblesse and obliger.

bor

The honourable obligation that is the responsibility of those of high rank; in American English this often includes the expectation of benevolent actions such as helping those less fortunate.

貴族義務 /贵族义务

the honourable obligation that is the responsibility of those of high rank


noblesse

en-noun

noblesse (usually uncountable, plural noblesses)

From Middle English noblesse, from Anglo-Norman noblesse, noblesce et al., Old French noblace, nobleche et al., from noble (“noble”).

But thou , whose noblesse keeps one stature still


hidalgo

Borrowed from Spanish hidalgo. Doublet of fidalgo.

The young man seems to entertain but an imperfect appreciation of the respect due from a menial to a Castilian hidalgo.

1889, W. S. Gilbert, The Gondoliers, act I:

A member of the Spanish nobility, especially one without a title.


conte

From Italian conte. Doublet of comes, comte, and count.

Coordinate term: contessa

So she led the way through a marble hall, pillared in different colors, rich and rare, with portraits of ancient contes and contessas on the walls, up a magnificent stone stair with a carved balustrade, to a suite indeed, where, at the entrance, Sibby was found very happy at her welcome from Mrs. Mount, who was equally glad to receive a countrywoman.

1895 July 13, Charlotte M[ary] Yonge, “The Long Vacation”, in The Churchman: An Illustrated Weekly News-Magazine, volume LXXII, number 2 (whole 2634), New York, N.Y.: M. H. Mallory & Co., chapter XXVIII (Rocca Marina), page 52 (24), column 3:

“Aspirin. It will help you to sleep tonight if you have aches and pains, or cold clammy dreams about dead contes and contessas,” he teased.

1986, Heather Graham Pozzessere, The Di Medici Bride, Silhouette Intimate Moments, →ISBN, page 130:

The announcement of the game had put Florentine society “in a flurry,” and two thousand spectators—including enough contes and contessas to fill half the palaces of Florence—made the trip beyond the city limits to view the match.

2006, Mark Lamster, Spalding’s World Tour: The Epic Adventure That Took Baseball Around the Globe—and Made It America’s Game, PublicAffairs™, →ISBN:


ennoble

en-verb

ennoble (third-person singular simple present ennobles, present participle ennobling, simple past and past participle ennobled)

ennobles (present singular third-person)
ennobling (participle present)
ennobled (participle past)
ennobled (past)

From Middle English ennoblen, from Old French ennoblir. Equivalent to en- + noble.

We’d like to believe that suffering instructs and ennobles.

2020, Francine Prose, “Has Trump learned anything from Covid-19? Absolutely not”, in The Grauniad:

There was no shortage of dropped jaws when news came through about the appointment of the recently ennobled Lord Peter Hendy as rail minister. This was certainly a left-field move, taking everyone (perhaps even himself) by surprise.

2024 July 24, Christian Wolmar, “Rail Minister Hendy has a tough job... but the skills to succeed”, in RAIL, number 1014, page 44:

To bestow with nobility, honour or grace.


contessa

From Italian contessa. Doublet of countess.

Coordinate term: conte

[…] Ms. Boris choreographed a tale about a haughty contessa who tries to seduce a young man with wondrous perfumes.

2007 January 8, Jack Anderson, “Ruthanna Boris, Versatile Ballet Russe Dancer, Dies at 88”, in New York Times:

A countess, often specifically an Italian countess


Ancien Régime

Borrowed from French Ancien Régime, from ancien (“former”) + régime (“rule, order”). The word first appeared in English in print in 1794.

(historical) The aristocratic social and political system established in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, overthrown by the French Revolution of 1789.

ancien régime

aristocratic system in France before the French Revolution


Mandate of Heaven

The philosophical construct that is the basis of the authority of the Son of Heaven.


Versailles

Borrowed from French Versailles, of uncertain Latin origin (see French entry below), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wértti (“to be turning around”).


Versailles

A town and county seat of Ripley County, Indiana, United States.

A home-rule class city and county seat of Woodford County, Kentucky, United States.

A city, the county seat of Morgan County, Missouri, United States.


Versailles

Named by Vietnamese American residents in the 1970s after the Versailles Arms apartment complex in which they first settled.

A neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.


marquise

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-marquise.wav

In 1986, she appeared in the stage adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuse opposite Alan Rickman, playing the manipulative marquise whose icy demeanour seems to have clung to Duncan's image like frost ever since, even though it is so at odds with her warmth in person.

2009 February 14, Emine Saner, “'She was a mass of contradictions - we all are'”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly historical) A marchioness, especially one who is French.


kaiserdom

en-noun

kaiserdom (countable and uncountable, plural kaiserdoms)

The dignity, rank or office of a kaiser; the state of being a kaiser.


marchioness

From Medieval Latin marchionissa, feminine form of marchion, from Late Latin marca, from Frankish *markōn (“to mark, mark out, to press with the foot”), from Proto-Germanic *markō (“area, region, edge, rim, border”).

der

The first train over the bridge was driven by the Marchioness of Tweeddale, and the engine was No. 602 of the North British Railway Company.

1941 January, the late John Phillimore, “The Forth Bridge 1890-1940”, in Railway Magazine, page 5:

A woman holding the rank of marquess in her own right.

The beauty and charm of the little marchioness and the tender hearted old colored man, with their mutual affection, forcibly remind the reader of "Uncle Tom" and "Eva."

1896, The Chautauquan, volume 22, page 382:

(slang, obsolete) An old-fashioned maid-of-all-work; female servant.


viscountess

From Middle English viscountes, viscountesse, probably from Middle French viscontesse; equivalent to viscount + -ess. Doublet of vicomtesse.


vicomte

From French vicomte. Doublet of vicecomes and viscount.


Louvre

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-Louvre.wav

Borrowed from French Louvre. More at Louvre Palace.

God above, this man was as chiseled as the statues she'd spied in the Louvre.

2011, Tara Kingston, Claimed by the Spymaster, page 68:

I don't care if your split, power or squat position looks like it should be in the Louvre, you won't jerk a thing.

2010, Don McCauley, Power Trip: A Guide to Weightlifting for Coaches, Athletes and Parents, page 130:

I preferred the Dutch apple pie, and my waitress for those few years had legs that belonged in the Louvre.

2006, Ted Nelson Lundrigan, Bob White, A Bird in the Hand, page 85:

IF YOU ARE a young Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle with a swing that belongs in the Louvre, somebody might get the idea you could win a batting title, even if it was only your second year with the New York Yankees.

1985 February, Phil Elderkin, “Don Mattingly: A.L. Batting Champion, A Born Hitter”, in Baseball Digest, volume 44, number 2, page 49:

For purposes of illustrating a lecture on calisthenics, a stick figure is a better picture of a squatting man than something from the Louvre.

1960, Thomas Felix Staton, How to Instruct Successfully: Modern Teaching Methods in Adult Education, page 172:

They are cries which show that every one has his own place, and should stay in it, — M. de Guise in the streets, and you in the Louvre. Go to the Louvre, Sire; go to the Louvre.

1889, Alexandre Dumas, Dame de Monsoreau: Volume 1, page 319:

A famous art museum and former royal palace in Paris, France.


duchesse

en-noun

duchesse (countable and uncountable, plural duchesses)

From French duchesse. Doublet of duchess.

Coordinate term: duc

Ary Scheffer, the drawing-master of the young Orleans princesses, offered to go with Thiers and procure him an audience of the duc or duchesse, or Madame Adélaïde.

1877 December 15, Emily Crawford, “M. Thiers: A Sketch from Life”, in Littell’s Living Age, volume CXXXV / fifth series, volume XX, number 1748, Boston, Mass.: Littell and Gay, page 679, column 2:

“1st September, 1680. We heard at our abbey [of Livry] the triumphs, the trumpetings and the music of Chelles at the consecration of the abbess. It is said that the fair beauty thought she was poisoned, and that gave her a right to have guards; she is still languishing, but so full of her grandeur that you must imagine something precisely contrary to that little violet [La Vallière], who hid herself in the grass, and was ashamed of being a mistress, a mother, and a duchesse; that will never be the model.”—Mme de Sévigné.

1888, Augustus J[ohn] C[uthbert] Hare, Days Near Paris, New York, N.Y., London, Glagsow: George Routledge and Sons, page 257:

Among the guests are Léon Bourgeois, president of the Chamber of Deputies, the Italian, German and Russian ambassadors, comtesse Greffulhe, the grande-duchesse Vladimir with comtesse Adhéaume de Chevigné, several comtes, comtesses, ducs and duchesses, Anatole France, Gaston Calmette, the baronne Gustave de Rothschild and Reynaldo Hahn, who sings at the piano when the initial hubbub has died down.

1990, Ronald Hayman, “For Le Figaro”, in Proust: A Biography, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III (1896–1905 Breakfast at Night), page 179:

She was the eighth child of the duc and duchesse of Enghien and, as a member of the reigning Bourbon house, was styled a princesse du sang, or princess of the blood.

2022, Belinda Scerri, “‘Instructing herself by fad or fancy’: Depictions and Fictions of Connoisseuses and Femmes Savantes in Eighteenth-Century Paris”, in Beatrijs Vanacker, Lieke van Deinsen, editors, Portraits and Poses: Female Intellectual Authority, Agency and Authorship in Early Modern Europe, Leuven: Leuven University Press, →ISBN, part II (Types and Models of Female Intellectual Authority), page 187:

(uncountable) Ellipsis of duchesse lace.


duchesse

For the ſaid Lord of Chaumont, went himſelfe peaceably through the countrie with a good band of men to Rouure, from whence he led the Ducheſſe of Sauoy and all hir traine to the next place of the Kings dominions. Before the diſpatch of the Ducheſſes laſt meſſenger, the King was departed from Lions[…]

1601, Thomas Danett, transl., The Historie of Philip de Commines Knight, Lord of Argenton, London: […] Ar. Hatfield, for I. Norton, page 147:

The Lord of Ragny carryed her in the place of Diana Ducheſſe of Angouleſme, who repreſented the Infanta Iſabella Clara Eugenia, Archducheſſe of Auſtria, being followed by the daughters of Rohan, Montmorencie, and Mayenne, who were Virgins, and the Ducheſſes of Rohan, Suilly, and others.

1611, Ed[ward] Grimeston, A Generall Historie of France, Written by Iohn de Serres vnto the Yeare .1598. Much Augmented and Continued vnto This Present, out of the Most Approoued Authors That Haue Written of that Subiect., […] George Eld, page 1220:

The people departed, and the Duke and Ducheſſe returned, and Don Quixote with them to the Caſtle, Toſilos was ſhut vp, Donna Rodriguez and her daughter were moſt happy, to ſee that one way or other, that buſineſſe ſhould end in marriage, and Toſilos hoped no leſſe. CHAP. LVII. How Don Quixote tooke his leaue of the Duke, and what befell him with the witty wanton Altiſidora, the Ducheſſes Damozell.

1620, The Second Part of the History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-Errant, Don Quixote of the Mançha, London: […] Edward Blount, translation of original by Michael Ceruantes, pages 380–381:


blue blood

blue blood (countable and uncountable, plural blue bloods)

Calque of Spanish sangre azul, probably a reference to the more visible veins of White people.

(uncountable) Noble or aristocratic ancestry.

ақсүйек (aqsüiek, literally “white bone”)

бе́лая кость f (bélaja kostʹ, literally “white bone”)

The bluebloods of golf began pouring into the sweltering nation’s capital yesterday for the 64th U.S. Open championship, and the hottest topic was not Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, but Champagne Tony Lema.

1964 June 16, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:

His expected appearance at the Met Gala — once a staid affair for New York blue bloods that has become an East Coast Oscars on Ms. Wintour’s watch — can be viewed as part of TikTok’s shift in how it presents itself to the public.

2024 May 3, Jacob Bernstein, Madison Malone Kircher, Sapna Maheshwari, “TikTok’s Boss Goes From Reserved Tech Exec to Met Gala Chair”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


banzai

From Japanese 万歳(ばんざい) (banzai, “long live..., huzzah, hurrah”), from Middle Chinese 萬歲 (mʉɐnᴴ siuᴇiᴴ), from Old Chinese 萬歲 (*mans s-qʷʰats, “10,000 years [of life]”, i.e. “immortality”), from 萬 /万 (wàn, “10,000”) 歲 /岁 (suì, “year (of age)”).
Compare Mandarin 萬歲／万岁 (wànsùi).

der

10,000 years 􂀿of life􂁀”, i.e. “immortality

zh-l

萬歲／万岁 (wànsùi)


Osborne

From a medieval given name influenced by, or possibly derived from, Old Norse Ásbjǫrn, from áss (“god”) + bjǫrn (“bear”). See English bear.

A small city, the county seat of Osborne County, Kansas, United States.

Pipestone County
Pipestone County#English

A township in Pipestone County, Minnesota, United States.

A rural community in St. Clair township, Lambton County, Ontario, Canada.

A former royal palace, now a tourist attraction, on the north coast of the Isle of Wight, England.


Buckingham Palace

The official London residence of the British monarch.

Buckingham-paleis

the official London residence of the British monarch


Medici

(historical) A powerful and influential aristocratic Florentine family from the 13th to 17th centuries.


God Save the Queen

The national anthem of the United Kingdom when the current monarch is female.


infante

From Spanish infante and Portuguese infante, both from Latin īnfāns (“child”). Doublet of infant. Cognate with infantry.

(historical) Any son of the king of Spain or Portugal, sometimes except the eldest or heir apparent.


infanta

Borrowed from Spanish infanta, Portuguese infanta, feminine of infante.

It was a dispatch intended specifically to communicate a sense of closure to the Spanish monarchs, to show that England possessed a dynasty fit for an infanta of Spain.

2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 40:

A daughter of a king in Spain and Portugal.


divine right

(Christianity, political science, philosophy) The Christian doctrine that monarchs have a God-given right to rule, that they are answerable only to God, and that rebellion is sinful.


principessa

The sins against propriety in manners are as frequent and as glaring. I do not speak of the hoyden vivacity, harlot tenderness, and dancing-school affability, with which vulgar novel-writers always deck out their countesses and principessas, chevaliers, dukes, and marquisses; […]

1821, Letters to Richard Heber, Esq. Containing Critical Remarks on the Series of Novels Beginning with “Waverley,” and an Attempt to Ascertain Their Author., London: […] Rodwell and Martin, […], page 34:

The Principessas, and they are all Principessas here, have fourteen or fifteen children a-piece; […]

1843, John Heneage Jesse, George Selwyn and His Contemporaries; with Memoirs and Notes, volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], page 372:

Not only that, but there was a title of nobility, the first that Peony or Dr. Planish had ever tasted, the Principessa Ca’ D’Oro, a real princess though she just happened to have been born a Miss Togg of Arkansas. She wrote social columns. But, nobler than nobility, bluer of jaw than the principessa was blue of blood, was Colonel Charles B. Marduc, deity among advertising agents, owner of a dozen magazines, major on the Western Front in World War I and now colonel in the National Guard; […] But Dr. Planish did see that only in New York could you adequately keep a national philanthropic organization. Where else could you count on generals and principessas and stars and Marducs and bishops of every brand from Roman Catholic through Methodist to Pentecostal Abyssinian?

1943, Sinclair Lewis, Gideon Planish, New York, N.Y.: Random House, pages 231–232:

Professor Hartt recalled that, at one of what Berenson liked to call his Sunday afternoon “tea fights,” he was surrounded by contessas, baronessas, and principessas in true Don Giovanni style.

1979, Meryle Secrest, Being Bernard Berenson: A Biography, New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page 391:

Inside, Italian principessas rubbed shoulders with Seventh Avenue princes.

1997, Sandra Marton, Until You, Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, page 88:

Italian principessas were always there with publishers, playboys, and princes some of the habitués of the club mingling with starlets and socialites.

2009, Deedee Panesar, In Gold We Trust: The True Story of the Papalia Twins and Their Battle for Truth and Justice, Trafford Publishing, published 2010, →ISBN, page 68:

I shoved Bee up another step, hoping she would bolt for the door to the attic, and I took each step down with a drawn-out measure worthy, I am sure, of the great principessas of the theater.

2010, Kate Elliott [pseudonym; Alis A. Rasmussen], Cold Magic (Spiritwalker; 1), Hachette, →ISBN:

Before her marriage to the head of Fiat, she had been “just one of those-down-at-the-Ferragamo-heels Italian principessas playing at working in New York—in her case, in Erwin Blumenfeld’s studio.[…]”

2017, Norma Stevens, Steven M. L. Aronson, Avedon: Something Personal, New York, N.Y.: Spiegel & Grau, →ISBN, page 46:

Only imagine, the sisters had enthused to one another on the phone, they could sail the wine-dark seas like Italian principessas.

2018, Mary Jane Myers, Curious Affairs, Philadelphia, Pa.: Paul Dry Books, →ISBN, page 69: