prerogative

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a right or privilege belonging exclusively to a particular person, group, or position

   Choosing the final design is the director's prerogative.

2. 2
   noun

   an official power reserved to a sovereign or government authority

   The monarch exercises that prerogative only on the advice of ministers.

From Anglo-Norman prerogative and Latin praerogativa. In the Roman assembly, a praerogativa was the group selected to vote first; the word broadened from a prior choice or verdict to a special right or privilege.

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