25 July 2018

lèse majesté

[lez, leez] [maj-uh-stee]

noun

1. Law. a crime, especially high treason, committed against the sovereign power.
an offense that violates the dignity of a ruler.
2. an attack on any custom, institution, belief, etc., held sacred or revered by numbers of people:
Her speech against Mother’s Day was criticized as lese majesty.

Also, lèse majesty, lèse majesté [lez mah-juh-stey, lez maj-uh-stee, leez].

Origin of lese majesty

French, Latin

1530-15401530-40; < French lèse-majesté, after Latin (crīmen) laesae mājestātis (the crime) of injured majesty

Dictionary.com

Anagram

male jests
jam steels
jets meals

Today’s quote

To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illuminate only the track it has passed.

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge

On this day

25 July 1603 – James VI, King of Scotland, is crowned as the first King of Great Britain and becomes James I.

25 July 1834 – death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet. Born 21 October 1772.

25 July 1946 – the United States conducts first under-water tests of an atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

25 July 1978 – Bob Dylan booed off stage for using an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival.

25 July 1995 – discovery of minor planet: 43844 Rowling, which was named after author J.K. Rowling in 2006.