Hypertext Webster Gateway: "prerogative"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

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}.]
1. 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.

2. 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}.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

prerogative
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}]

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