lèse-majesté

See also: lese majeste and lèse majesté

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French lèse-majesté, from Latin laesa maiestās (“injured majesty”).

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /liz ˈmædʒəsti/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

lèse-majesté

  1. The crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state.
    • 1917, James W. Gerard, My Four Years in Germany‎[1]:
      Convictions for the crime of Lèse-Majesté are of almost daily occurrence and, at the opening of the war, an amnesty was granted in many of these cases, the ministry of war withdrawing many prosecutions against poor devils waiting their trial in jail because they had dared to speak disrespectfully of the army.
    • 1919, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves‎[2], London: George Newnes:
      George, old scout, you must get a move on. You must light out if you want to spend the rest of your life out of prison. Slugging a Serene Highness is lèse-majesté. It’s worse than hitting a policeman. You haven’t got a moment to waste.
    • 2025 October 25, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, “Call yourself a fan?”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 1:
      And I have a hazy memory of members of the Beyhive, Beyoncé's fandom, posting disobliging commentary about my byline photo following a podcast discussion in which I was judged to have committed some forgotten act of lèse-majesté.

Translations

Further reading

French

Etymology

From Latin laesa maiestās (“injured majesty”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lɛz.ma.ʒɛs.te/
  • Audio (France (Lyon)):(file)

Noun

lèse-majesté f (usually uncountable, plural lèse-majestés)

  1. lèse-majesté (crime of violating majesty)
    crime de lèse-majesté ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Further reading

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