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prerogative
5 dictionary results for: Prerogative
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
pre·rog·a·tive       [pri-rog-uh-tiv, puh-rog-] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.an exclusive right, privilege, etc., exercised by virtue of rank, office, or the like: the prerogatives of a senator.
2.a right, privilege, etc., limited to a specific person or to persons of a particular category: It was the teacher's prerogative to stop the discussion.
3.a power, immunity, or the like restricted to a sovereign government or its representative: The royal prerogative exempts the king from taxation.
4.Obsolete. precedence.
–adjective
5.having or exercising a prerogative.
6.pertaining to, characteristic of, or existing by virtue of a prerogative.
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME < L praerogātīvus (adj.) voting first, praerogātīva (n. use of fem. of adj.) tribe or century with right to vote first. See pre-, interrogative]

—Synonyms 1. See privilege.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
pre·rog·a·tive       (prĭ-rŏg'ə-tĭv)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. An exclusive right or privilege held by a person or group, especially a hereditary or official right. See Synonyms at right.
  2. The exclusive right and power to command, decide, rule, or judge: the principal's prerogative to suspend a student.
  3. A special quality that confers superiority.

adj.   Of, arising from, or exercising a prerogative.


[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin praerogātīva, feminine of praerogātīvus, asked first, from praerogātus, past participle of praerogāre, to ask before : prae-, pre- + rogāre, to ask; see reg- in Indo-European roots.]

pre·rog'a·tived adj.
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
prerogative 
1387 (in Anglo-L. from 1293), from O.Fr. prerogative (14c.), M.L. prerogativa "special right," from L. prærogativa "prerogative, previous choice or election," originally (with tribus, centuria) "unit of 100 voters who by lot voted first in the Roman comita," prop. fem. of prærogativus (adj.) "chosen to vote first," from prærogere "ask before others," from præ- "before" + rogare "to ask" (see rogation).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
prerogative

noun
a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right); "suffrage was the prerogative of white adult males" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.]

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.

The two faculties that are the prerogative of man -- the powers of abstraction and imagination. --I. Taylor.

An unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative. --Macaulay.

2. Precedence; pre["e]minence; first rank. [Obs.]

Then give me leave to have prerogative. --Shak.

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.

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.

Syn: Privilege; right. See Privilege.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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