Word: droit
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...paper, it is the kind of convoluted intrigue that gives opera a bad name. Figaro (Brian Saccente), valet to the Count Almaviva (Josh Benaim), is about to marry his sweetheart Susanna (Sarita Cannon), but the Count also has his eye on her. Although the Count has abolished the droit du seigneur, which traditionally allowed the lord to deflower any bride on her wedding night, he is tempted to revive it in Susanna's case. Though a philanderer, the Count is fanatically suspicious of his innocent wife, the Countess (Kate deLima), and her naive admirer, the page Cherubino (Amy Buckley Brown...
...used as tourist attractions and given free board and lodging in return for affording the rest of us some entertainment. You may remember how the old kings -- like Henry V -- used to spy on their subjects; now it's the subjects who spy on their rulers. Dieu et mon droit...
Equally noteworthy has been Mobutu's quest for sexual favors among the wives of political associates. "The President enjoys an almost feudal droit du seigneur," explains a former Cabinet minister. "He uses sex as a tool to dominate the men around him. You get money or a Mercedes-Benz, and he takes your wife and you work for him." Says a former longtime resident of Gbadolite: "The complaints of those he has cuckolded only add to his mystique as a virile and powerful ruler...
...snide, pejorative language. From Latin comes the disapproving sinister (on the left, inauspicious) and the flattering dexterous (on the right, skillful). The Spanish word for left-handed, zurdo, means malicious. If you are gauche (left) in France, you are tactless and unsophisticated. Adroit comes from the French a droit (to the right), and we know what maladroit means -- especially when we see a left-handed violinist bowing northwest while the rest of the string section is northeast. A left-handed compliment is not nice, but a right-hand man is indispensable. If you get up on the wrong (left) side...