A couple of tricky fellows for you today – and ones that are often misspelled into the bargain. It’s two-for-one day at Word du Jour!
First up is one thing we can thank the artistes Bobby Brown and Britney Spears for (and if there are any others, it can’t be a very long list) their singing of “My Prerogative” brought the correct spelling to a wider audience. Prerogative is a word which is quite often misspelled on account of that strange R in between the P and the E. We can thank those crazy Romans for the strange spelling – it comes from the Latin prærogativa, originally the group of 100 voters who would be given the right to vote first in elections. The word came to be used in 17th century feudal times (via Old French) to mean a right or privilege bestowed upon a person or entity, a right which may or may not be in concurrence with common law. In case you were unaware, The Queen of England by default owns all the unmarked swans in the UK – an example of something known as royal prerogative. More often than not these days (as in the songs of Brown and Spears) it means a right to behave or carry yourself in the manner in which you see fit.
