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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--lese majesty This week's theme: terms from French. lese majesty or lèse majesté (leez MAJ-uh-stee) noun 1. An offense against a sovereign power. 2. An attack against someone's dignity or against a custom or institution held sacred. [From French lèse-majesté, from Latin crimen laesae maiestatis (the crime of injured majesty).] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "There was, though, one small sign of disenchantment. In a field well away from the airport, there was a scarecrow, dressed in the usual tatters, except for a pair of All Blacks tracksuit bottoms. Such lese majesty would have been unthinkable before the World Cup." New Zealand: Natural Born Thriller; The Guardian (London, UK); Feb 5, 2000. X-Bonus These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. -Gilbert Highet, writer (1906-1978)

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