Prerogative

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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}.]
     [1913 Webster]


     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The two faculties that are the prerogative of man --
              the powers of abstraction and imagination. --I.
                                                    Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              An unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative.
                                                    --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Precedence; pre["e]minence; first rank. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Then give me leave to have prerogative. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Privilege; right. See {Privilege}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [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}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  81 Moby Thesaurus words for "prerogative":
     absolute power, absolutism, accomplishment, advantage, appanage,
     appurtenance, ascendancy, authority, authorization, birthright,
     claim, competence, competency, conjugal right,
     constituted authority, deanship, delegated authority, demand,
     divine right, droit, due, excellence, exemption, faculty, favor,
     franchise, greatness, immunity, inalienable right, incomparability,
     indirect authority, inherent authority, inimitability, interest,
     jus divinum, lawful authority, lead, legal authority, legitimacy,
     liberty, majority, natural right, one-upmanship, perquisite, power,
     precedence, predominance, predomination, preeminence,
     preponderance, prepotence, prepotency, prescription, prestige,
     presumptive right, pretense, pretension, priority, privilege,
     proper claim, property right, regality, right, right-of-way,
     rightful authority, royal prerogative, sanction, seniority, skill,
     success, superiority, the say, the say-so, title, transcendence,
     transcendency, vested authority, vested interest, vested right,
     vicarious authority, virtuosity
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PREROGATIVE, English law. The royal prerogative is an arbitrary power vested 
  in the executive to do good and not evil. Rutherf. Inst. 279; Co. Litt. 90; 
  Chit. on Prerog.; Bac. Ab. h.t. 
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PREROGATIVE, civil law. The privilege, preeminence, or advantage which one 
  person has over another; thus a person vested with an office, is entitled to 
  all the rights, privileges, prerogatives, &c. which belong to it. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  PREROGATIVE, n.  A sovereign's right to do wrong.