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roi fainéant. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
roi fainéant, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
roi fainéant in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From French roi fainéant (“lazy king”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌɹwɑː ˈfeɪnɪənt/, /ˌɹwɑː feɪneɪˈɒ̃/
Noun
roi fainéant (plural rois fainéants)
- (historical) Any of the later French kings of the Merovingian dynasty, considered to have played a merely ceremonial role.
1860, George Augustus Sala, Lady Chesterfield's Letters to her Daughter:Whether it be some Visigothic chieftain raised on a shield above the shoulders of his shouting warriors, some Roi Fainéant of the Merovingian race, a listless, pallid, long-haired kingling, dragged languidly through the streets in a painted wagon by sleek oxen, […] it seems clear to me that we must have some sort of a show, and a pageant, and a ‘barbaric pomp’ of procession.
- A leader with only nominal power.
1898, Henry Harland, Comedies and Errors:He is a King Do-Nothing, a Roi Fainéant, who shirks and evades all the responsibilities of his position […]
2012 May 7, Adam Gopnik, “Vive La France”, in The New Yorker:Although Jacques Chirac more recently gave the role a distinctly sleepy, roi fainéant flavor, it remains a throne more than a mere office.
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʁwa fɛ.ne.ɑ̃/ ~ /ʁwa fe.ne.ɑ̃/
Noun
roi fainéant m (plural rois fainéants)
- (historical) roi fainéant