lettre de cachet

English

Etymology

From French lettre de cachet.

Noun

lettre de cachet (plural lettres de cachet)

1. (now historical) A warrant issued by the monarch in ancien régime France, especially one which imprisons someone without trial.
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

     I lost my temper, and spoke so irreverently of the Grand Monarque, that the next morning I was sent to the Bastile, by virtue of a Lettre de Cachet.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     “Bon Dieu!” thought the old negotiator, “the boy has actually talked the woman round, and she’d get him a wife as she would a toy if Master cried for it. Why are there no such things as lettres-de-cachet—and a Bastille for young fellows of family?”

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 113:

     This year the King sent it to Troyes, each member ordered there by an individual lettre de cachet.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 22:

     Louis stepped up persecution of prominent Jansenists, using lettres de cachet to imprison the most subversive [...].

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛ.tʁə d(ə) ka.ʃɛ/, /le.tʁə d(ə) ka.ʃɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

lettre de cachet f (plural lettres de cachet)

1. (historical) lettre de cachet