Crossword clues for prerogative
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prerogative \Pre*rog"a*tive\, n. [F. pr['e]rogative, from L. praerogativa precedence in voting, preference, privilege, fr. praerogativus that is asked before others for his opinion, that votes before or first, fr. praerogare to ask before another; prae before + rogare to ask. See Rogation.]
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An exclusive or peculiar privilege; prior and indefeasible right; fundamental and essential possession; -- used generally of an official and hereditary right which may be asserted without question, and for the exercise of which there is no responsibility or accountability as to the fact and the manner of its exercise.
The two faculties that are the prerogative of man -- the powers of abstraction and imagination.
--I. Taylor.An unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative.
--Macaulay. -
Precedence; pre["e]minence; first rank. [Obs.]
Then give me leave to have prerogative.
--Shak.Note: The term came into general use in the conflicts between the Crown and Parliaments of Great Britain, especially in the time of the Stuarts.
Prerogative Court (Eng. Law), a court which formerly had authority in the matter of wills and administrations, where the deceased left bona notabilia, or effects of the value of five pounds, in two or more different dioceses.
--Blackstone.Prerogative office, the office in which wills proved in the Prerogative Court were registered.
Syn: Privilege; right. See Privilege.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"special right or privilege granted to someone," late 14c. (in Anglo-Latin from late 13c.), from Old French prerogative (14c.), Medieval Latin prerogativa "special right," from Latin praerogativa "prerogative, previous choice or election," originally (with tribus, centuria) "unit of 100 voters who by lot voted first in the Roman comita," noun use of fem. of praerogativus (adj.) "chosen to vote first," from praerogere "ask before others," from prae- "before" (see pre-) + rogare "to ask" (see rogation).
Wiktionary
a. Having a hereditary or official right or privilege. n. 1 A hereditary or official right or privilege. 2 A right, or power that is exclusive to a monarch etc, especially such a power to make a decision or judgement. 3 A right, generally 4 A property, attribute or ability which gives one a superiority or advantage over others; an inherent advantage or privilege; a talent.
WordNet
n. a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right); "suffrage was the prerogative of white adult males" [syn: privilege, perquisite, exclusive right]
Wikipedia
In law, a prerogative is an exclusive right given from a government or state and invested in an individual or group, the content of which is separate from the body of rights enjoyed under the general law of the normative state. It was a common facet of feudal law. The word is derived from O.Fr. prerogative (14c.), M.L. prerogativa "special right," from L. praerogativa "prerogative, previous choice or election," originally (with tribus, centuria) "unit of 100 voters who by lot voted first in the Roman comitia," from praerogativus (adj.) "chosen to vote first."
In modern popular culture usage, the word prerogative has come to mean the egalitarian condition of the right for anyone's own self-determination, e.g., that it is "one's prerogative" to do as they please. The antithesis of the legal historic use of the term, being private exclusion from anyone and determined to the individual from without.
Usage examples of "prerogative".
As long as the emperors retained the prerogative of bestowing on every vacancy these ecclesiastic and secular benefices, their cause was maintained by the gratitude or ambition of their friends and favorites.
This gave rise to much altercation and debate, especially among the lords, where the Earl of Chatham, Lord Camden, and others, who had long been the advocates of popular rights, vindicated the present exercise of royal prerogative, not on the plea of necessity but of right: arguing that a dispensing power was inherent in the crown, which might be exerted during the recess of parliament, but which expired whenever parliament reassembled.
The money levied, or rather extorted, under color of prerogative, had come in very slowly, and had left such ill humor in the nation, that it appeared dangerous to renew the experiment.
In the law of real property, its rules of tenure and descents, its entails, its fines and recoveries, their vouchers and double vouchers, in the procedure of the Courts, the method of bringing writs and arrests, the nature of actions, the rules of pleading, the law of escapes and of contempt of court, in the principles of evidence, both technical and philosophical, in the distinction between the temporal and spiritual tribunals, in the law of attainder and forfeiture, in the requisites of a valid marriage, in the presumption of legitimacy, in the learning of the law of prerogative, in the inalienable character of the Crown, this mastership appears with surprising authority.
The following interval between the second and third parliament, was distinguished by so many exertions of prerogative, that men had little leisure to attend to the affair of tonnage and poundage, where the abuse of power in the crown might seem to be of a more disputable nature.
The answer of his majesty to this address was reported on the 24th, and it contained an assurance that he would not interrupt their meeting by any exercise of his prerogative, either by prorogation or dissolution.
I only told you I was exercising my prerogative as a C20 to maintain you as my captain because your abilities to block scans were a strategic defence against the Others.
These acts of prerogative were most speciously excused by the vices of a popular election.
Man never had the right to usurp the unexercised prerogative of God, and condemn and punish another for his belief.
For weeks Adams had been exercising his presidential prerogative to fill government positions of all kinds, including some for friends and needy relatives.
The benevolence of death appears from this fact, that it boundlessly multiplies the numbers who can enjoy the prerogatives of life.
On the decline of the Carlovingian race, the nobles in every province of France, taking advantage of the weakness of the sovereign, and obliged to provide each for his own defence against the ravages of the Norman freebooters, had assumed, both in civil and military affairs, an authority almost independent, and had reduced within very narrow limits the prerogative of their princes.
Inasmuch as most large concerns prosecute both an interstate and a domestic business, while the instrumentalities of interstate commerce and the pecuniary returns from such commerce are ordinarily property within the jurisdiction of some State or other, the task before the Court in drawing the line between the immunity claimed by interstate business on the one hand and the prerogatives claimed by local power on the other has at times involved it in self-contradiction, as successive developments have brought into prominence novel aspects of its complex problem or have altered the perspective in which the interests competing for its protection have appeared.
On top of these financial costs, we would also face the diplomatic costs of fighting with our trade partners over the secondary sanctions, fighting constantly in the Security Council over Washington usurping the prerogatives of the United Nations, and resisting French, Russian, and Chinese efforts to make us pay a price for our unilateralism.
New ethics laws, a resurgent Congress and a more inquiring media altered the prerogatives and daily lives of presidents.