Word of the day: prerogative

History

In ancient Rome, there was the concept of "centuria" - a military detachment of 100 people. And after the reform of the ruler Servius Tullius, the word began to be used in relation to the civilian population. The king divided the Romans into five property classes, each of which was split into groups of about 100 people. They had the right to vote at popular assemblies. The first centuria to vote was called prerogative. So the word "prerogative" came into use.

It came to the Russian language in the 16th century through German, Polish or French. The word is often found not only in news stories about politics and in government documents, but also in everyday speech in the broader sense of "the privilege of a person or a group of people in a particular area." That is, in the general sense, a prerogative is something that is available or permitted to only one person or several people.

Usage examples

"Contempt is the prerogative of the king." Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power.
"Now all philosophers, but a hundred or one hundred and twenty years ago, discussions about the relationship between matter and consciousness were, one might say, the prerogative of the intelligentsia." Lev Danilkin, “Lenin. Pantokrator of solar dust particles”.
“If we understand that science and technology cannot be prevented from changing the world, we can at least try to make these changes go in the right direction. In a democratic society, this means that the people should have some understanding of basic scientific concepts in order to use information to make decisions, and not make it the prerogative of specialists. " Stephen Hawking, Black Holes and Young Universes.