royal we

plural royal we's · plural rare royal wes

1. The first-person plural pronoun as traditionally used in formal speech by any royal personage to refer to themselves, most especially a sovereign in their role as the monarch.

   Queen Victoria is the monarch most commonly associated with the use of the royal we, as in "We are not amused."

   5 more examples

   The string of royal we’s in lines 19–27 conflates his personal responsibility with those of the civic institution and the city fathers, and the two analogies he appeals to along the way have self-exculpatory force.

   1997, Harry Berger, Jr., “What Does the Duke Know and When Does He Know It? Carrying the Torch in Measure for Measure”, in Peter Erickson, editor, Making Trifles of Terrors: Redistributing Complicities in Shakespeare, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 347

   I know there are certain conventions of style to be observed when one writes for a professional journal. I’s indicative of real people must be suppressed, even at the cost of substituting royal we’s.

   1999, Peter Gould, “[Thinking about Teaching] What Is Worth Teaching in Geography?”, in Becoming a Geographer, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 238

   It may not sound very revolutionary to the modern ear—with all those royal wes and the orotund periods of Ciceronian dimensions which, with their apparently endless sub-clauses building slowly to a climax as they do, would probably read and sound better in Latin.

   2000, Edward Stourton, Absolute Truth: The Struggle for Meaning in Today’s Catholic Church, New York, N.Y.: TV Books, →ISBN, page 31

   “So it wasn’t a royal we,” said Jane, turning around to face former Evanston police detective Bruce Oh and his wife, Claire. / Bruce Oh raised an eyebrow slightly, which for him was a thoroughly out-of-character display of expression. Jane did not know, however, whether he was surprised to see her or had no idea what she meant by the reference to the royal we. / “When we spoke on the phone,” said Jane,” you said when we return from California, but I didn’t know you were in California, so I thought you were just—”

   2006, Sharon Fiffer, Hollywood Stuff, New York, N.Y.: Minotaur, St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN

   “We want you to apply to Stanford, UCSF, University of Chicago, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dana-Farber, Mass General, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, and the National Cancer Institute.” We is Herr Doktor Ultmann, a royal we. “You will get a letter of recommendation from us. Every time you see a place, you will rank every one of them until that point. Then you will call and tell us what your choice is.”

   2011, Otis Webb Brawley with Paul Goldberg, How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, published 2012, →ISBN, page 145

2. humorousSynonym of editorial we.

   Synonyms: editorial we