Recently one of my sons noticed that another blogger on these pages often uses the 'royal we' in his posts.
He sent me the following snippet from an internet site he belongs to.
royal we
PRONUNCIATION:
(ROI-uhl
wee)
MEANING:
noun:
The first-person plural pronoun used by a king or queen to refer to himself or
herself, for example, "We are not amused," a line attributed to Queen Victoria.
As it's often used by newspaper editors, the term is also known as the
"editorial we". Mark Twain once said, "Only kings, presidents, editors, and
people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we'."
ETYMOLOGY:
From
Latin nos (we). The practice of using "we" to refer to oneself is called
nosism.
USAGE:
"Sir
Mick leads the way, a smirk on those impossibly exaggerated lips. 'How are we
all?' he asks. It's appropriate he uses the royal we -- after all, they've
reigned supreme for almost half a century."
Gaynor Flynn; They Still Gather
No Moss; The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); May 18, 2008.
I have now subscribed to this site A Word a Day with hopes to increase my vocabulary. If you are interested, check out www.wordsmith.org. It's free!
