From King Charles II to Sarah Palin in One Word

I have been reading a biography of Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is written in English (as opposed to American or Australian) but there are few words unfamiliar to me.

The one word that has cropped up most often is the word prorogue, in reference to the King's actions regarding Parliament. Prorogue is defined as "to discontinue a session of (the British Parliament or a similar body)" or "to defer or postpone." It came into use in the 1400s (200 years before King Charles II) from the Old French word proroger or proroguer. Of course, the Old French got the word from Latin, from prorogare, that literally translated is "to ask publicly." It is formed by combining the prefix pro- meaning before (a good meaning for a prefix) and rogare meaning to ask.

Etymonline.com suggests the original sense in Latin may have been to ask the public for consent to extend someone's term in office, but the legislative meaning of "temporarily discontinued" has been around since the mid-1400s.

How it changed from asking consent to postponing is not explained. But etymonline.com does connect it with another word, rogation, a word my spellcheck doesn't recognize. Neither did I. It is apparently an ecclesiastical term for "solemn supplication", and is especially related to the chanting that occurs in the three days before Ascension Day (called in some places Rogation Days). Ascension Day is the 40th day after Easter. The history of Rogation Days goes far back into the early few centuries of the church.

Rogation also comes from the Latin word rogare. So does a more familiar word that either prorogue or rogation. The word derogatory comes from rogare, by adding the prefix de-, meaning "away." Derogare means both to diminish and to partly repeal or modify. Derogatory came into English in about 1500 directly from Latin, and is the word for that which lessens the merit or reputation of a person or thing.

The verb form of the adjective derogatory (derogation) followed another 50 years later.

You may have been wondering how our word rogue relates (or if it does) to prorogue. One would be forgiven for thinking that when a legislative body is temporarily discontinued is has something to do with giving time off "for the rogues." But, alas, it doesn't.

Rogue, while it may also have come from rogare, has a different and more colorful course into English use. Ten years after the arrival of derogation it appeared, and there are two theories for its source. One is that it comes from a Celtic word akin to the Breton word for haught: rog. But the Oxford English Dictionary (all bow) says there is no evidence of a connection to the French word for haughty, rogue. Another theory is that it is a shortened form of the word roger, pronounced with a hard "g", which was thieves' slang for a beggar (rogare: to ask) who pretends to be a poor scholar (poor monetarily, not necessarily in scholarship) from Oxford or Cambridge.

Before the onset of the 15th century the word was used more affectionately (and less derogatorily) for a mischievous individual.

It was not until 1859 it was first used for a large beast living apart form the herd, most commonly it seems of a rogue elephant. I always wondered why we didn't call them rogue dogs or rogue rabbits, but it is most often used with elephants in my experience. That's the same year the phrase "rogue's gallery" came into use for the collection of police mug shots.

Apparently until 1964 no one thought to use it of other things that are undisciplined or uncontrolled, and now it has been transmogrified into the phrase "going rogue," which was used as the title of Sarah Palin's political memoir.

And that is how you get from King Charles II to Sarah Palin in one word: rogare.