Etymology

lèse-majesté

Today it means: The crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state. Full definition →

French lèse-majesté ← Latin laesa maiestās
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromlaesa maiestās“injured majesty”
  2. French · borrowed fromlèse-majesté
  3. English todaylèse-majesté

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.