éminence grise

See also: eminence grise

English

WOTD – 4 November 2021

Etymology

Borrowed from French éminence grise (literally “grey eminence”), originally applied to François Leclerc du Tremblay (1577–1638), also known as Père Joseph, a French Capuchin friar who was the confidant and agent of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642), the chief minister of France under Louis XIII (1601–1643). The term refers to du Tremblay’s influence over the Cardinal (who bore the honorific of Eminence), and the colour of his habit (grey, rather than the red of a cardinal).^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): (also of éminences grises) /ˌɛmɪnɒns ˈɡɹiːz/, /ˌeɪ-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): (also of éminences grises) /ˌɛmɪnɑns ˈɡɹiz/, /ˌeɪ-/
• Rhymes: -iːz
• Hyphenation: émi‧nence grise

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

éminence grise (plural éminences grises or éminence grises)

1. (idiomatic) A secret or unofficial decision-maker.

   Synonyms: power behind the throne, gray eminence

   • 1987 July 12, John A[rthur] Garraty, “Harry’s Luck [book review of Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy by George McJimsey]”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 December 2020, page 28:

     But Harry Hopkins was no mere manipulator of people and ideas, no eminence grise masterminding the actions of figureheads.

   • 2009 September 16, Coco Masters, “Japan’s New Prime Minister—and New Shadow Shogun”, in Time‎, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 October 2017:

     [Ichirō] Ozawa is the Secretary-General of [Yukio] Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) and the éminence grise of the electoral campaign that catapulted the new Prime Minister to power.

Alternative forms

• eminence grise

Translations

secret or unofficial decision-maker — see also power behind the throne

Chinese: Mandarin: 灰衣主教 (huīyī zhǔjiào) Czech: šedá eminence (cs) f Danish: grå eminence c Dutch: éminence grise (nl), grijze eminentie Finnish: harmaa eminenssi (fi) French: éminence grise (fr) f Georgian: რუხი კარდინალი (ruxi ḳardinali) German: graue Eminenz (de) f Italian: eminenza grigia f Japanese: 黒幕 (ja) (くろまく, kuromaku) Korean: 흑막 (黑幕) (ko) (heungmak) Norwegian: grå eminense m Polish: szara eminencja (pl) f Portuguese: eminência parda f Romanian: eminență cenușie (ro) f Russian: се́рый кардина́л (ru) m (séryj kardinál, literally “grey cardinal”) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: сива еминенција f Roman: siva eminencija f Spanish: eminencia gris f, jefe máximo m (Mexico) Swedish: grå eminens Ukrainian: сірий кардина́л m (siryj kardynál)

See also

• puppetmaster
• svengali

References

1. “éminence grise, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2018; “éminence grise, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• éminence grise on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• éminence grise, eminence grise, gray eminence, grey eminence at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.

French

Etymology

From éminence + grise, originally applied to François Leclerc du Tremblay (1577–1638), also known as Père Joseph, a French Capuchin friar who was the confidant and agent of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642), the chief minister of France under Louis XIII (1601–1643). The term refers to du Tremblay’s influence over the Cardinal (who bore the honorific of Eminence), and the colour of his habit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.mi.nɑ̃s ɡʁiz/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: émi‧nence grise

Noun

éminence grise f (plural éminences grises)

1. (idiomatic) éminence grise

Descendants

• → English: éminence grise
• → German: graue Eminenz (calque)