The Word for Today is...

royal we

PRONUNCIATION:

(ROI-uhl wee)

MEANING:

noun: The first-person plural pronoun used by a king or queen to refer to himself or herself, for example, "We are not amused," a line attributed to Queen Victoria. As it's often used by newspaper editors, the term is also known as the "editorial we". Mark Twain once said, "Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we'."

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin nos (we). The practice of using "we" to refer to oneself is called nosism.