roi fainéant

English

Etymology

From French roi fainéant (“lazy king”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɹwɑː ˈfeɪnɪənt/, /ˌɹwɑː feɪneɪˈɒ̃/

Noun

roi fainéant (plural rois fainéants)

1. (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.

2. 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)

1. (historical) roi fainéant