Doyen/Doyenne

The Word of the Day for November 3 is "doyen/doyenne."

doyen: (noun) A man who is the eldest or senior member of a group.

doyenne: (noun) A woman who is the eldest or senior member of a group.

Synonyms: elder, senior

Relevance to my life: One girl in my class, I believe,  had been held back once or had started Kindergarten later than the rest of us, so in comparision to the rest of us she was huge, and she knew it. She also tended toward the bully end of the spectrum, so in no time at all she had taken over the class as de facto leader: The doyenne of our class at Borough Elementary School.

Since November is NanNoWriMo, and this means I will be aiming for an average of 2,000 words a day, I will also go out of my way to include the word of the day in each day's work as a little challenge to myself.

Ok, about "doyen/doyenne," I have heard the feminine form of the word before: on NPR, one of the commentators used to introduce a gardening correspondent, Ketzel Levine, as "The Doyenne of Dirt." I have never head the male form used before today.

Today's video clips feature two period dramas, Brideshead Revisited and, what else, Pride and Prejudice.

In the following clip from Brideshead Revisited, the alluded-to-Mr. Samgrass could be considered a doyen. This is a pivotal, yet subtle scene. It provides a lot of background info to allow things to fall into place and also foreshadows what's to come.


Charles and Lady Marchmain

I can't think of a better example of a doyenne than the wretched Lady Catherine de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice.

This sums her up perfectly.



The Piano Scene